cover: the pyramid declares itself — named floors + caption

Second operator complaint proved the whisper-contrast pyramid still read
as printing artifacts. Cover-design law, now learned for good: an
unlabeled near-invisible shape on a dark ground IS an artifact to every
viewer who wasn't in the design meeting. The pyramid stays — it is the
book's central image — but visible (paper!45!ink outlines, paper!12!ink
fills), with its floors named (Signature / Scalars / Group law / Field)
and an italic caption: 'the proof pyramid this book climbs'. The cover
now shows the book's structure instead of hinting at it.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
mrwulf 2026-08-09 17:42:55 +02:00
parent 1f11b8aa4d
commit 8c7c28702a
2 changed files with 12 additions and 5 deletions

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@ -7,13 +7,20 @@
\begin{titlepage} \begin{titlepage}
\pagecolor{ink}\color{paper} \pagecolor{ink}\color{paper}
\begin{tikzpicture}[remember picture,overlay] \begin{tikzpicture}[remember picture,overlay]
% the proof pyramid the book climbs — drawn in solid mixed colors, never % The proof pyramid the book climbs. Cover-design law, learned twice:
% transparency: low-opacity fills on a dark ground render as smudge and % an unlabeled near-invisible shape on a dark ground reads as a printing
% vary by viewer. Crisp thin outlines make it read as intentional. % artifact, not a motif. So the pyramid declares itself — visible fills,
\foreach \i/\w in {0/5.4, 1/4.2, 2/3.0, 3/1.8}{ % named floors, a caption. Solid mixed colors only (transparency on dark
\draw[paper!30!ink, line width=0.5pt, fill=paper!8!ink] % renders as smudge and varies by viewer).
\foreach \i/\w/\layer in {0/5.4/Field, 1/4.2/Group law, 2/3.0/Scalars, 3/1.8/Signature}{
\draw[paper!45!ink, line width=0.6pt, fill=paper!12!ink]
($(current page.center)+(-\w/2,{-3.0+\i*0.95})$) rectangle ++(\w,0.8); ($(current page.center)+(-\w/2,{-3.0+\i*0.95})$) rectangle ++(\w,0.8);
\node[paper!80!ink, font=\footnotesize\scshape]
at ($(current page.center)+(0,{-2.6+\i*0.95})$) {\layer};
} }
\node[paper!55!ink, font=\small\itshape, anchor=north]
at ($(current page.center)+(0,-3.35)$)
{the proof pyramid this book climbs};
\end{tikzpicture} \end{tikzpicture}
\vspace*{3.2cm} \vspace*{3.2cm}
{\fontsize{15}{18}\selectfont\scshape\color{accent} a hands-on course in\par} {\fontsize{15}{18}\selectfont\scshape\color{accent} a hands-on course in\par}