Illustrating Crafting Interpreters

Bob Nystrom
2 HN recommenders · recommended in 2 months, 2018–2024
YouTube
12K views · 8 years ago · demo · evergreen

A time-lapse by Bob Nystrom of how he draws the illustrations for his book Crafting Interpreters, by hand on paper with pencil and pen. It shows a single diagram being made from start to finish.

HN people share it as proof of the care behind the book's hand-drawn illustrations, calling it ASMR for geeks.

“the time-lapse video of the entire process is like ASMR for geeks”
Illustration & iconographyGraphic design
#handdrawn#illustration#time-lapse#craftinginterpreters#technicalbook

5 comments from Hacker News

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@vishnugupta2022 · in “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
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@airstrike2020 · in “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
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@munificent2024 · in “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
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@munificent2021 · in “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.
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@munificent2018 · in “A Virtual Machine”
You can watch me draw one of them here: ▶ this video :)
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