Galin progress
Index

Notes on the making

Colophon

How this notebook is made: the art it borrows, the type it is set in, and the tools underneath.

ΧΑΛΕΠΑ ΤΑ ΚΑΛΑ

“Beautiful things are hard.”Greek proverb, quoted by Plato, Hippias Major 304e

Classical works

Art

Classical works appear here only from public-domain or CC0 files, with each license checked. Until a file is found, the page shows a labelled frame in its place. One is drawn afresh after the original instead.

8 works7 sourced1 drawn after0 in preparation

  1. Fig. 1

    Flying-machine studies (Manuscript B)

    Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1488–90

    Used in
    The design on the 404 page; the model for the hero ornithopter and the crashed wing
    Treatment
    The machine on folio 80r cut out as an ink drawing, without the mirror writing and stains around it, and tinted to the theme in the page; on the 404 it tries to fly when pressed. The hero ornithopter and the 404 crashed wing are original drawings after these studies.
    License
    Public domain (PD-Art)

  2. Fig. 2

    Studies of bird flight (Codex on the Flight of Birds)

    Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1505

    Used in
    Hero sky, page margins, section dividers, the scroll indicator, the footer and the share cards
    Treatment
    Ink cutouts from folios 8v, 11v, 17r and 18r (the Commons files Codice_Volo_08V_mod.jpg, Codice_Volo_11V_mod.jpg, Codice_Volo_17R.jpg and Codice_Volo_18R.jpg): six birds in flight, a mechanical wing, a diagram of a wing’s joints and two lines of mirror writing. The paper is made transparent and the ink tinted to the theme in the page. The mechanical wing of 17r is cut at its elbow so the outer wing can flex beside “From the Workshop” on Home; behind each invention’s render it stays whole and still.
    License
    Public domain (PD-Art)

  3. Fig. 3

    Vitruvian Man

    Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1490

    Used in
    Fields at a glance (Home) and the command palette’s hidden note
    Treatment
    An original drawing of the circle-and-square geometry without the figure: the six fields stand where circle and square meet, over Leonardo’s scale of palms. No image of the drawing is used.
    Source, license
    An original drawing for this site; no image of the work is used

  4. Fig. 4

    The School of Athens, Plato and Aristotle

    Giovanni Volpato, after Raphael, c. 1781, after the fresco of 1509–11

    Used in
    Plato beside Goals, Aristotle beside the Codex
    Treatment
    Plato and Aristotle cut out of Volpato’s engraving and etching (The Met, 35.85.45) as two whole figures, at the print’s own resolution, then redrawn as pen-and-ink studies by the site’s sketch filter, painted in the theme’s ink by day and gold by night.
    License
    Public domain (The Met Open Access, CC0)

  5. Fig. 5

    Winged Victory of Samothrace

    Hellenistic Greek, c. 190 BC; plaster cast in the Royal Cast Collection, Copenhagen

    Used in
    “Done” stamp on Goals
    Treatment
    The cast (SMK, KAS358) cut out as a silhouette, with the wing and two drapery folds cut in, and printed in the stamp’s gold.
    License
    Public Domain Mark 1.0 (SMK, National Gallery of Denmark)

  6. Fig. 6

    The Creation of Adam, the hand

    Michelangelo, c. 1512

    Used in
    Home hero corner, reaching toward the cursor
    Treatment
    Hand cutout from a photograph of the fresco (albumen print, c. 1875–1900, Rijksmuseum RP-F-00-4409), mirrored to reach toward the machine, with a hairline plaster crack painted out, then redrawn as a pen-and-ink study by the site’s sketch filter.
    License
    CC0 1.0 (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)

  7. Fig. 7

    Bust of Socrates (the Villa Albani herm)

    Roman copy of a Greek original; plaster cast in the Royal Cast Collection, Copenhagen

    Used in
    Stoa header
    Treatment
    Head and herm cut out of SMK’s photograph of the cast (KAS635), faded out down the herm, then redrawn as a pen-and-ink study by the site’s sketch filter.
    License
    Public Domain Mark 1.0 (SMK, National Gallery of Denmark)

  8. Fig. 8

    Sistine Madonna, the two cherubs

    Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Müller, after Raphael, early 19th century, after the painting of 1512–13

    Used in
    Letters, leaning on the first sheet
    Treatment
    Both cherubs cut out of Müller’s etching and engraving (The Met, 23.106.52) with their wings, resting on the sheet’s edge as they rest on the ledge, then redrawn as a pen-and-ink study by the site’s sketch filter.
    License
    Public domain (The Met Open Access, CC0)

Cut in stone

Epigraphs

Each page opens with a line of Greek, set in capitals without accents, the way it would be cut in stone. The texts are ancient and in the public domain, so they need no license. Each English line is a plain translation.

  1. Home

    ΠΑΝΤΕΣ ΑΝΘΡΩΠΟΙ ΤΟΥ ΕΙΔΕΝΑΙ ΟΡΕΓΟΝΤΑΙ ΦΥΣΕΙ

    “All people, by nature, desire to know.”

    Aristotle, Metaphysics 980a

  2. Workshop

    ΔΟΣ ΜΟΙ ΠΑ ΣΤΩ ΚΑΙ ΤΑΝ ΓΑΝ ΚΙΝΑΣΩ

    “Give me a place to stand, and I will move the earth.”

    Archimedes, as told by Pappus

  3. Codex

    ΜΙΑ ΓΑΡ ΧΕΛΙΔΩΝ ΕΑΡ ΟΥ ΠΟΙΕΙ

    “One swallow does not make a spring.”

    Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 1098a

  4. Goals

    Ο ΒΙΟΣ ΒΡΑΧΥΣ, Η ΔΕ ΤΕΧΝΗ ΜΑΚΡΗ

    “Life is short, the craft is long.”

    Hippocrates, Aphorisms 1.1

  5. Now

    ΠΑΝΤΑ ΡΕΙ

    “Everything flows.”

    After Heraclitus

  6. Stoa

    ΤΩΝ ΟΝΤΩΝ ΤΑ ΜΕΝ ΕΣΤΙΝ ΕΦ ΗΜΙΝ, ΤΑ ΔΕ ΟΥΚ ΕΦ ΗΜΙΝ

    “Some things are up to us, and some are not.”

    Epictetus, Enchiridion 1

  7. About

    ΓΝΩΘΙ ΣΕΑΥΤΟΝ

    “Know yourself.”

    Inscribed at Delphi

  8. Letters

    ΑΝΕΥ ΓΑΡ ΦΙΛΩΝ ΟΥΔΕΙΣ ΕΛΟΙΤ ΑΝ ΖΗΝ

    “No one would choose to live without friends.”

    Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 1155a

  9. Colophon

    ΧΑΛΕΠΑ ΤΑ ΚΑΛΑ

    “Beautiful things are hard.”

    Greek proverb, quoted by Plato, Hippias Major 304e

  10. Lost, the 404 page

    ΕΝ ΟΙΔΑ ΟΤΙ ΟΥΔΕΝ ΟΙΔΑ

    “I know one thing: that I know nothing.”

    Attributed to Socrates

Three faces

Type

All three are self-hosted through Fontsource, so reading this page sends no requests to a font service. Nav and section numerals are set in JetBrains Mono, and the epigraphs and the Stoa’s numerals in Inter; both carry Greek, which Cormorant lacks.

Under the parchment

Stack

Astro
Builds every page as static HTML
React
Runs the interactive islands: the hero scene, the Workshop gallery and the command palette
Three.js via React Three Fiber
Draws the ornithopter, the clouds and the Workshop’s ring and sphere
cmdk
The command palette’s search list
Lenis
Smooth scrolling
Tailwind CSS
Utility styles on top of the design tokens
Vercel
Hosting

Pages without 3D ship almost no JavaScript, and every page reads in full with JavaScript turned off.

Borrowed light

Thanks

Four sites shaped how this one feels. I took an idea or two from each, never their code, words or images. Thank you.

  • Carter Ogunsola carterogunsola.com

    The OS feel: a slim status bar with live data, a command palette, a dated feed of what’s new, and a light, dark and system theme.

  • Pahari pahari.vercel.app

    The mood and colour: a warm, painterly atmosphere and a floating 3D gallery you can rearrange.

  • Melbouci melboucierayane.com

    The work layout: numbered project rows with year, status and “my part”, small animated schematics, numbered principles, and a playful live counter.

  • Enigma enigmascult.com

    The classical layer: a heavenly hero of clouds and arches, classical cutouts collaged with modern objects, and mythic section titles.