Dear Commons Community,
Last year, I read two books by Christopher de Hamel about illuminated manuscripts. He, who is widely recognized as a world authority on illuminated manuscripts, inspired me to consider how technology could be used to generate colorful, electronic versions using AI and other digital tools. I coined the term for doing so a “technuscript.
An illuminated manuscript is by definition produced by hand. A technuscript (if you look in a dictionary or on Google, there is no such word) uses many of the same design elements that characterized the medieval illuminated manuscripts but would employ digital technology to produce the finished product. In this post are sample images I created to develop a technuscript based on an article I wrote entitled “Theories and frameworks for online education: Seeking an integrated model.” I selected this article because it has a number of concepts that are conducive to creative and image-based explanations. The design features for this technuscript include:
- Using bright, jewel-toned colors (reds, blues, yellows, greens) in the images;
- Using AI to generate images;
- Employing a variety of image sizes from small thumbnail to full pages;
- Placing borders on images;
- Using an antique block font on a vellum-style page background for the text;
- Colorizing the first word of each paragraph.
Below are sample pages to illustrate the style I used. The entire technuscript is available at: Article Matted Matura Script PDF
Here is a comment from Christopher de Hamel mentioned above on viewing my technuscript: :
“…I have looked at your unexpected technique of conjuring up modern manuscripts, or technuscripts, which, as far as I know, no-one has ever attempted…I am sure [medieval] scribes would rejoice to see it, as I do.”
I would love to receive feedback from any of you reading this post as to what you think about my efforts.
Tony
