Illustrating Crafting Interpreters
Why Hacker News recommends it
Shared in Crafting Interpreters threads because it shows the care behind the book and is satisfying to watch.
What it is
Bob Nystrom shows his process for hand-drawing the diagrams in his book Crafting Interpreters, from pencil sketches to tracing and inking. It is a time-lapse of the whole illustration workflow.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2020 to 2024.
What Hacker News said
Recommends airstrike · 2020-04 · on “Crafting “Crafting Interpreters””
> I used to do graphic design, and I have this weird tic where any time I see something that looks handwritten, I look for multiple instances of the same letter to see if they are different or if the design just used a handwriting font. It’s almost always a handwriting font and I die a little inside to see the illusion evaporate. Not a graphic designer, but I do the exact same thing and feel the exact same way... Happy to see I'm not crazy alone And his look like really neat hand-drawn diagrams! I certainly appreciate the degree of craftsmanship and care displayed throughout both books As a someone put it on YouTube, the time-lapse video of the entire process is like ASMR for geeks [this video]
Recommends vishnugupta · 2022-02 · on “Crafting Interpreters – Web Version”
Related. The author's love for their craft oozes through their work. If I'm not wrong every single illustration in the book is hand-drawn ; like literally. Take a look: [this video]
Cites munificent · 2021-07 · on “Crafting Interpreters is available in print”
Literally hand drawn with my hands. Here's a video of me making one: [this video] It's, like, comically time consuming. But also pretty satisfying.
Cites munificent · 2024-02 · on “Why Writing by Hand Is Better for Memory and Learning”
You're welcome! People always assume I drew them digitally somehow, but nope, literally on paper with pencil and pen. Here's a video I put together showing the process: [this video]