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Ask HN: Would you pay for a poster of your code?

7 points by ortuna ↗ HN
I'm building a side project that takes your Github/Bitbucket repo, lets you pick some source files and create a 24x36 poster that is mailed to you(perhaps to mark the first release of your code). Font would be monospaced to fit evenly on the poster and perhaps some columns of code? The cost with rough estimates should be $50. I think it would be damn cool to have the first release of a project I worked on or an open source project I work on. What do you think?

edit: Something like http://imgur.com/wgDRIyL

14 comments

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chippy
What would it look like, do you have an example?
ortuna
Something like: http://imgur.com/wgDRIyL

Also a physical example: http://imgur.com/mI0ETBu But still fiddling with fonts and line spacing and spacing between columns.

I did this manually and tested physical print, which came out really nice. and you can read the code!

JoshTriplett
While the ability to read snippets of code is fun, you want to aim for a more striking visual style. Consider adding syntax highlighting specifically to add splashes of color, and doing something to make the columns look less uniform and newspapery.
ortuna
I was thinking of the ability to upload a logo, but the logo would only overlay the text and not the background.
JoshTriplett
That suggests an idea that would require significantly more image processing to do, but would provide a huge amount of value: can you analyze the logo and the source code, and construct a large image of the logo out of snippets of source code, using code/whitespace density for shading? A print-resolution poster of a project logo constructed out of that project's source code is definitely something I'd pay money for, and lower-resolution versions will work well on social media.
stevekemp
That would be nice.

I remember I contributed to the "Mozilla" advert which ran in in a newspaper a few year ago. That had a logo made up of the names of the people who had similarly donated.

techdragon
I once did this with some stuff during reverse engineering, I printed about 20 portrait orientation A3 pages in colour of source code at the largest font size I could without inducing any lines to wrap.... With that, some post it notes and a nice pencil I was able to spot the problem in the control flow I hadn't seen when moving around the source file on my computer screen.

I'd be much more likely to buy this kind of thing in colour.

rickymetz2
Whats the finish and weight of the poster?
ortuna
finish: semi gloss weight: ~170g

I'm sure other types can be created for different prices.

Someone1234
Love the concept, don't like the current design of the posters. It is like reading the phone book(!). I wouldn't hang that on my wall, sorry.

Would I be interested in something like this? Maybe. But $50 is a legitimate thought-through purchase (read: I need to justify it to my +1). Anything over $30 is not something I can buy on a whim, and this is a "on a whim" kind of purchase.

ortuna
The generic columns being ugly seems to be a repeated theme. The $30 price does seem like a good price point. Would you care if the size was smaller to meet the price? Smaller size being 24x18.
Someone1234
To be honest I struggle to visualise just how big 24x18 is. Something the size of a 19" monitor would be nice just to hang up in a cube farm.
arnold_palmur
I like this idea a lot and I actually like the design. It's nice and minimal - a interesting conversation piece perhaps when having guests over.
ortuna
At least in certain types of programming, you create something that can never be touch.