a picture is worth a thousand words

Author Archive

Kate Evolution

It was funny to see how people use the data of my last Lost post trying to solve whom Kate loves. I think I can help… Take a look at this new visualization focused in the Kate words. All she said from episode 1×01 to 6×11.

There are three different images. In the portrait the word size is proportional to word’s repetitions. The second one analyses the words around a determinate word, in this case the three possible winners, Jack, Sawyer and Aaron. The distance to the main word is the average distance. In the last one you can see the evolution of the 30 most used words by Kate along the show seasons.

Some considerations:
– I add “James” count to “Sawyer” in order to compare real totals.
– The size of the words around Jack, Sawyer and Aaron are proportionals to their respective numbers. That’s because I want to compare the relative importance to each one but don’t want to loose ‘resolution’ because of the ‘Jack’ big numbers.
– In the graphs, the value of each episode count are the average of episodies around it. That’s because in some episodies Kate don’t even appears.

You probably miss one word… but the only time she said ‘sex’ was when reading the Sawyer letter… in 01×08.

Enjoy it.

Download PDF JO-D-100413-KateEvolution-ING (709kB)

If you like this post you will probably like this others:
Jack vs Lock
Lost Characters
Get Lost

Uh, I forgot to mention… you can find the transcripts here.


The words of the numbers

Encouraged by this news, I made my own analysis of the last budget’s speech by Alistair Darling.

First I recreated the face of Mr. Darling with the data suggested. As usual the size of the words is proportional to the repetition.

Later, using my own text analysis over the last eleven budget’s speeches, I made different visualizations showing distance’s relationship and the evolution of the most used, or most significative, words.

The last one is focused in the word ‘tax’. In this case the distance to the words is the average distance in the speeches. The big one represent all years from 2005 to 2010. The other two are focused in their own year.

Due to the filesize I recomend you to download and navigate the PDF version.

Dwonload PDF JO-D-100411-Budget2010-ENG (621kB)


Featured at Siggraph

My Leonardo Da Vinci  image was featured at Siggraph Digital Arts Community. Thank you very much!.


Breakfast with Words

The most used words about Audrey Hepburn in her wikipedia article.

Download PDF  JO-D-100407-Audrey-ENG (1.6MB)


Claude Monet

A beautiful Monet Painting with the most used words in this wikipedia article.

A closer look.

Download PDF  JO-D-100406-Monet (445kB)


Leonardo da Vinci

As a tribute to one of the most interesting characters in history, Leonardo da Vinci.

The image is a self-portrait with the quote “Art is never finished, only abandoned.” With which I feel quite identified.

The new thing is the addition of a transparent shadow below each word, sized proportionally to the font size.

Download PDF  JO-D-100330-LeonardoDaVinci-ENG (2.7MB).


The Words Of Jesus

Since we are in Easter I think it’s time to answer an email that Luis Barcelo sent to me a month ago. He suggested about an image only with the words that Jesus said.

Great idea!, but how to find what Jesus was recorded as saying?. Well this hard work is already done by JB Phillips as you can see in this website. He has the New Testaments books with the Jesus words in red. Easy task, isolate these words by using the select by format of any text processing application and we are done.

For the curious the beginning of the my counted words list with ALL the words: the (836), you (626), and (546), to (430), of (349), i (305), is (278), that (223), will (216), your (215), who (209), in (203), for (191), it (187), a (185), have (174), not (168), me (164), are (163), be (153), but (151), man (141), what (120), he (118), my (116), do (113), come (108), has (101), him (98), his (94), father (91), god (89), they (88), go (84), from (82), this (79), if (78), one (77), as (74), can (71), all (66), no (66), on (66), say (64), them (64), know (62), believe (61), up (61), with (60), am (58), when (56), life (53), out (51), give (50), into (50), or (50), see (50), son (49), how (47), so (47), good (46), then (46), which (46), at (45), must (45), those (45), by (43), now (43), like (42), heaven (41), there (41), men (40), own (38), hear (35), never (35), things (35), tell (34), their (34), was (34), don’t (33), let (33), shall (33), because (32), people (32), sent (32), does (30), eye (30), kingdom (28), make (28), day (27), even (27), live (27)…

From this list we will remove all the single characters words and ‘the’, ‘to’, ‘of’ and ‘and’. Sometimes I also remove ‘you’ because of the big distance between this one and the rest of words.

You can Download the full list here: thewordsofjesus.

The other problem is the base image. Which one?. Luis send me an image from the movie The Passion, and I made a couple of images using it. Take a look.

Download PDF JO-D-100328-JesusWords01-ING (254kB)
Download PDF JO-D-100328-JesusWords02-ING (390kB)
Download PDF JO-D-100328-JesusWords03-ING (541kB)

But I want to go further.

The only change to find a ‘real’ image of Jesus is the The Holy Shroud of Turin. And we have a useful reconstruction, a painting created in 1935 by an Armenian artist named Ariel Aggemian. There is a funny history that joins this image, computers and an indian spiritual master. I retouched it a little bit in order to have a sharp result as base image.

As final step let me choose a representative font. The first modern print of the Biblia was made in 1454 by Gutenberg and we have a very nice free font that mimics that print here.

We have all ingredientes!. So, here we go…

Download PDF  JO-D-100328-JesusWords04-ING (372kB)

I also made another testing files I want to share.

Download PDF JO-D-100328-JesusWords05-ING (148kB)
Download PDF JO-D-100328-JesusWords06-ING (372kB)

That’s all!. I have several ideas about this matter but not enough free time. So may be next time.

Hope you like it.


On the Origin of Words

A portrait of Darwin with the most used words in the book “On the Origin of Species”.

Word list: species (1874), forms (895), natural (874), different (829), one (816), may (657), case (653), many (609), selection (595), can (585), plants (575), varieties (575), organs (570), animals (555), parts (507), two (470), great (422), several (406), conditions (389), distinct (387), thus (384), characters (378), generally (370), period (363), number (360), structure (357), certain (354), groups (351), life (339), existence (334), facts (325), change (320), individuals (314), long (314), much (312), first (307), important (306), see (305), variations (300), crossed (299), common (295), now (292), new (291), produced (289), closely (286), birds (284), time (284), even (279), become (278), developed (277), must (275), inhabitants (274), related (269), instance (262), often (262), large (260), degree (258), domestic (251), flowers (250), mr (250), modification (249), believe (247), breeds (242), islands (242), less (240), widely (233), modified (232), well (231), genera (230), use (230), habits (229), insects (228), state (228), though (228), another (227), formations (227), seeds (226), probably (224), appear (223), far (223), perfect (223), present (222), slight (222), descendants (221), class (219), yet (219), remarked (216), almost (214), living (212), might (212), hybrids (211), like (211), nearly (203), extinct (200), manner (198), parent (198), instincts (197), sterility (196), found (183), effects (182), variability (182), view (182), inherited (181), cause (180), country (180), successive (180), whole (179), vary (178), water (178), intermediate (177), doubt (176), highly (176), supposed (176), increase (175), seems (173), given (172), place (172), genus (171), formerly (169), kind (169)…

There is a huge difference between ‘Species’ and the rest of the words, so I discard it for the spread process but you still can find it in the title with appropiate size.

If you are interesting in the complete list send me an email asking for it and I will send it to you.

Rotated version.

Detail view.

Download PDF JO-D-100325-Darwin (428KB)
Download PDF JO-D-100325-Darwin-Rot (614kB)


Words of Charity

Mother Teresa words portrait.

Most representative words from this wikipedia article. To identify the important words, I take just the capitalized words with two or more repetitions.

Here is the list: teresa (81), missionaries (28), charity (27), india (23), calcutta (18), catholic (15), hitchens (11), besra (8), august (7), loreto (7), thomas (7), vatican (7), chatterjee (6), christian (6), christopher (6), john (6), paul (6), september (6), albanian (5), hindu (5), international (5), jesus (5), keating (5), muggeridge (5), pope (5), prize (5), blessed (4), bojaxhiu (4), brian (4), francis (4), gonxhe (4), holy (4), kolodiejchuk (4), livermore (4), mar (4), nobel (4), peace (4), reception (4), rev (4), rome (4), saint (4), agnesë (3), aids (3), aroup (3), award (3), christ (3), commemoration (3), criticism (3), kalighat (3), october (3), republic (3), roman (3)…

Perhaps too much abstract. You have to take distance in order to ‘view’ the main subject. But I like it a lot, probably because of the really nice original image (from: http://mtomnibus.wordpress.com/2008/12/03/inward-journey/ I am not sure if it is the original autor. Sorry if not)

Download PDF JO-D-100324-MotherTeresa-ENG (282kB).


Country road in Provence by words

Again?… It seems that I like Van Gogh. It’s true, but I also think that my algorithm works well with Van Gogh painting style… I like the results that’s why I want to share it with you.

The image base is “Country road in Provence by night” and the Van Gogh quote: “the way to know life is to love many things”.

Download PDF JO-D-100317-VanGoghRoad-ENG (439kB)

Detail view.


Miguel Delibes

As a tribute to this great writer, recently died. This time, words and images only in spanish.

A closer look.

For the picture I counted all the words used in some of his best books:  Cartas de un sexagenario voluptuoso, Cinco horas con Mario, Diario de un cazador, Dos viajes en automovil a Suecia y los Paises Bajos, El amor propio de Juanito Osuna, El camino, El hereje, El mundo en la agonia, El principe destronado, España 1936-1950 Muerte y resurreccion de la novela, La hoja roja, La mortaja, La partida, La sombra del cipres es alargada, Las ratas, Los santos inocentes, Señora de rojo sobre fondo gris, Tres pajaros de cuenta y tres cuentos olvidados, Viejas historias de Castilla la Vieja.

A list of most-used words:  casa (1662), don (1568), hombre (1560), paso (1420), miraba (1416), cosas (1338), mano (1220), niño (1098), sentía (997), hijo (971), bueno (937), dejó (925), salió (923), llegó (917), parece (909), vida (902), bien (894), ojos (892), viejo (891), hablar (880), luego (856), entonces (845), pensó (837), madre (828), cabeza (810), ver (806), volvió (786), tarde (757), aquella (755), padre (753), tiempo (749), quedó (742), cipriano (726), parte (715), mal (683), pueblo (678), dice (666), podía (665), noche (661), primera (661), quiere (652), llevaba (645), vivir (642), creo (638), chica (636), medio (623), preguntó (616), siempre (601), usted (589), tomó (577), muerte (566), hermana (554), aún (551), mario (547), palabras (531), digo (527), ponía (523), debe (519), veces (519), iba (516), lado (515), voz (512), señorito (511), cuenta (510), muchacha (502), mundo (501), calle (496), tal (496), verdad (492), pues (490), quico (490), libro (478), llamó (473), levantó (471), mujer (471), conocía (470), dios (470), puerta (465), aquí (463), juan (459), doña (456), mamá (456), junto (453), esperaba (451), momento (450), nunca (449), último (446), mejor (444), mar (438), gusto (437), puso (437), fin (436)…

Probably my nicer list so far…

Download PDF   JO-D-100315-MiguelDelibes (281kB)

Also, I made the version with words rotated.

Download PDF  JO-D-100315-MiguelDelibes_R (188kB)

Thank you Miguel…


3D alphabet experiment

I am in the middle of a new ‘special’ poster, and I am making some testing with different technics… For example trying to use the Zdepth map with my algorithm… with no acceptable results 🙁

But…  I want to share with you some of my test files. This one is based in a render of a random geometry (3dsmax and Grebble). It contains only alphabet letters. Quite simple but no too bad. Suitable for abstract forms  fans.

Download PDF JO-D-100310-Grebble-ENG (2.7MB)


Freddie Mercury

Following the suggeston posted by Mohamed Magdy about the Queen Image, here you have a Freddie Mercury portrait with the most used words of his songs.

A closer look.

Download PDF JO-D-100310-Freddie-ENG (205kB)


Wheatfield with Words

Another Van Gogh quote spread over one of his incredible pictures.

The picture “Wheatfield with Crows”, the quote “I dream of painting and then I paint my dream”.

There are more than 48.000 single words in this image.

Download PDF JO-D-100308-VanGoghTrigal-ENG (647kB)

A closer look.

All the files under Creative Commons License.
If you want me to do something like that with your personal images you can contact me by email at juanosborne@gmail.com.
You can add your suggestions here.


20 of the Best

My Kurt Cobain portrait has been selected as part of the “20 of the Best Typographical Portraits Found on the Web”, along with a lot of amazing works,  by the website DesignJuices.

You can take a look at the article here.

Thank you so much!


Kurt Cobain

We are talking about music again. Now we will look at Nirvana lyrics. Kurt Cobain portrait as base imagen.

Most used words: like (63), go (48), take (45), want (40), yeah (39), make (36), never (36), can (34), know (33), get (32), just (32), hey (31), got (30), one (30), see (30), oh (29), say (29), happy (28), way (28), heart (27), think (24), find (23), something (23), day (22), night (21), time (21), come (20), die (20), eyes (20), now (20), shame (20), wish (20), away (19), friend (19), new (19), said (19), love (18), back (16), dive (16), hurts (16), else (15), feel (15), nothing (15), pick (15), ain’t (14), cross (14), kiss (14), light (14), mean (14), cold (13), help (13), hung (13), keep (13), look (13), sun (13), wait (13), another (12), eat (12), face (12), fun (12)…

More information about Nirvana and Kurt Cobain in Wikipedia.

Download free pdf (for non comercial use):
JO-D-100301-Nirvana-ENG.pdf (173kB)


Freddie Mercury words

The most used words in Queen lyrics. The base image is the cover art of one of their albums.

Thank you Freddie…

Download JO-D-100301-Queen-ENG.pdf (205kB)

Files free for non commercial use.


Obama Words Relationship


Obama speeches are a good testing ground. This time we are going to investigate the relationship between some of the most ‘representative words’ used in his speeches. These words are: american, can, country, hope, iraq, people, schools, war, work and world. You can find the Obama Speeches in this url  http://obamaspeeches.com/

The words cloud image represents the words close to one of the ‘representative word’ (in color). Word size represents the number of times the word appears. The distance to the ‘representative word’ represents the average distance of all instances of each word.

Take a closer look.

The last image represents all the words with a proportional size and an evolution in time of the most used words. Also, there is an attempt to count only the adjetives (it is just an experiment!), because, in some way, adjetives ‘describe’ things.

You can download and distribute my images for free (for non commercial use).

Download PDF ObamaDistances.pdf (8.5MB)
Download PDF  ObamaEvolutiom.pdf (385kB)

Remember my other post related to Obama. The Obama Speeches Portrait, and the Obama Tree.


Zapatero and Rajoy


Just a quick post showing another point of view of the last congressional debate in Spain.

It is a little bit hard to compare, because Zapatero speak much more than Rajoy (17935 / 4702 words).

Speeches from http://www.congreso.es/.

Download free  JO-D-100224-ZapateroRajoy-ESP.pdf (283kB)


Jack VS Locke

Animated by a suggestion of ^BadNumber^ from lostzilla.net here we go again with… Lost.

This time I have analyzed all the dialogues of the five seasons, but thanks to the scripts hosted in lostpedia.wikia.com we can know the words each character said… exactly.

So here are the results. The first image is a versus between Jack and Locke. Each face has the words correspondig to the character.

In the last image each character has his own words. The bigger the more times they used it. The distance to the character is mostly random. We choose nine of them… look at it and you will know why.

As a curiosity take a look to number of times each character talk, the number of words spoken and the average words per intervention.

jack (3254 int / 28951 words / 8.89 avg)
locke (2339 int / 22670 words / 9.69 avg)
hurley (1761 int / 17244 words / 9.79 avg)
kate (2272 int / 17327 words / 7.62 avg)
sawyer (2387 int / 24165 words / 10.12 avg)
sayid (1505 int / 14754 words/ 9.80 avg)
ben (1009 int / 13064 words / 12.4 avg)
juliet (924 int / 8661 words / 9.37 avg)
desmond (868 int / 8413 words / 9.69 avg)

I want to thank ^BadNumber^ and cesarfuenla for their assistance with ideas and suggestions. Thank you guys… hope you like it.

Download free PDF jackvslocke.pdf (578kB)
Download free PDF lost_thewordstheysaid.pdf (6.5MB)

As a bonus… the ‘dark’ version…

Download free PDF jackvslocke-dark.pdf (189kB)

You can print it freely (for non commercial use), but if you prefer a big size printed copy you can order it in deviantart:

Jack vs Locke
Lost The Words They Said
Jack vs Locke Dark Version


Millenium Characters

Once again we will work with Millenium trilogy, the Stieg Larsson Bestsellers.

This time I covered  the three books searching relationships between some of the main characters and the words around it.

Word size represents the numbre of times the word appears. The distance to the name represents the average distance of all instances of the each word.

Download PDF MilleniumCharacters-ENG.pdf (4.5MB)

Take a closer look.


John Maeda


Just a quick post about John Maeda and his book ‘ Laws of Simplicity” wich I recommend reading.

The image contains the most used words in this book.

And, of course, thanks John because you began processing….

Download free PDF JohnMaeda.pdf (580kB).

Take a closer look.


Lost Characters.

We are Lost again. Now we will look at the Characters evolution and their relationship.

I took all the english subtitles of the five seasons and I counted all the words but in a new and different way, by taking care of word position.

The right part of the image shows the number of times the word appears through episodes. You can see how some characters just disappear or gain prominence in time.

In the left part of the image, every character has the words that are close to his name in the subtitles. The bigger, the more times the word appears. The distance to the character is proportional to the distance between words. Characters are colored in order to ease location. The character position is random.

You can draw some conclusions.

Take a closer look….click to enlarge.

Hope you like it!

Download PDF poster LostCharacters.pdf (883kB).


The Bible


Probably the most interesting book ever… The Holy Bible.

This time I want to know if there is deep differences between New and Old Testaments. So I counted words from these documents independently and put the results together each one in a side of the image. The left hand represents the words from the New Testament. The right hand the Old Testament ones.

Because the Old testament is bigger than the New Testament I used a correction factor so the words can be compared in size between both documents.

As base image I used a part of a well know Michelangelo painting…

One more thing. There is a lot of free versions of the Bible. I just pick one of them in english and another in spanish (double work of course). There must be huge differences between all the different versions of the Bible. Even between the differents idioms. For example the word ‘Lord’ in english correspond to ‘Jehovah’ in the spanish version… I don’t know why…

And remember, it is just a exercise… the results may be inexactly or totally wrong at all..

Old Testament: lord 7279, god 3340, son 3044, said 2941, king 2759, upon 2502, israel 2501, day 2124, house 1943, people 1910, man 1829, land 1709, hand 1681, children 1662, saying 1628, came 1590, shalt 1510, come 1432, one 1431, go 1342…

New Testament: god 1392, said 1061, jesus 984, man 908, saying 904, things 848, lord 734, come 657, one 615, also 599, christ 573, came 506, day 485, son 454, father 428, now 407, men 396, therefore 356, know 348, went 338…

Download TheBible.pdf (English Version) (436kB)
Download LaBiblia.pdf (Spanish Version) (440kB)