`\pi` Day 2019 Art Posters - Digits, internationally.
On March 14th celebrate `\pi` Day. Hug `\pi`—find a way to do it.
For those who favour `\tau=2\pi` will have to postpone celebrations until July 26th. That's what you get for thinking that `\pi` is wrong. I sympathize with this position and have `\tau` day art too!
If you're not into details, you may opt to party on July 22nd, which is `\pi` approximation day (`\pi` ≈ 22/7). It's 20% more accurate that the official `\pi` day!
Finally, if you believe that `\pi = 3`, you should read why `\pi` is not equal to 3.
How many ages hence
Shall this our lofty scene be acted over
In states unborn and accents yet unknown!
—Willian Shakespeare (Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene 1)
Welcome to this year's celebration of `\pi` and mathematics.
The theme this year is typographical and pure—in contrast to last year's extremely elaborate computational art. This year is also the first time I have made a special kids' edition!
This year's poem is by Viorica Hrincu and it is about complications.
This year's `\pi` day song is Tshinanu by Kashtin.
If you enjoy art based on type, explore my other typographical works.
`\pi` day — kids edition!
Several teachers have reached out to me in the past and asked for art to hang in their classrooms. So I thought what better way to get kids excited and talking (and reading) about math than with an explosion of colors and phat fonts.
The international kids' poster uses the following languages: Afrikaans, Albanian, Azerbaijani, Basque, Catalan, Cebuano, Corsican, Croatian, Danish, Dothraki, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Estonian, Finnish, French, Frisian, Galician, German, Gongduk, Haitian/Creole, Hausa, Hawaiian, Huastec/Mayan, Icelandic, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Khasi, Ladan, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Luxembourgish, Malagasy, Maltese, Maori, Nao, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Puyuma, Ro, Samoan, Scots/Gaelic, Sesotho, Shona, Slovak, Slovenian, Solon, Solresol, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Tenerife, Tetun, Turkish, Welsh, Xhosa, Yoruba, Zenaga, and Zulu.
Some of these languages are fictional or engineered—I'll leave it to you to find them.
The posters read out the digits of `\pi` in a variety of languages. For this version of the art, I've selected language digit words that have no diacritical marks—to fit the letters more tightly.
for everybody
Adults shouldn't feel left out—they're free to enjoy the `\pi` Day kids' editions (I know I want to).
However, for the more discerning typographer in you (if Granby Elephant is too bloated for your eyes), I have prepared something slimmer.
These posters spell out the digits of `\pi` in a variety of languages and alphabets. I'll leave you to work out the rule for the red highlights.
The following languages are used: Afrikaans, Ainu, Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Avestan, Azerbaijani, Balinese, Banjar, Bengali, Biblical Arameic, Buginese, Bulgarian, Bumthang, Catalan, Cherokee, Chinese, Cia-cia, Coptic, Czech, Danish, Dothraki, English, Esperanto, Etruscan, Frisian, Galician, Gaulish, Georgian, Georgian Old, Gothic, Greek Old, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Hopi, Hungarian, Igbo, Inuktitut, Irish, Japanese Sino, Javanese, Kannada, Kazakh, Khmer, Klallam, Korean, Korean Sino, Kyrgyz, Ladan, Ladino, Lao, Latvian, Macedonian, Malagasy, Malay, Malayalam, Mandaic, Mongolian Classical, Myanmar, Norse, Norwegian, Old English, Old Turkic, Pashto, Persian, Phoenician, Proto Germanic, Punjabi, Ro, Romanian, Samaritan, Samoan, Sanskrit, Sesotho, Sindhi, Sinhala, Slavonic, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Sundanese, Swahili, Swedish, Sylheti, Syriac, Tajik, Telugu, Tetun, Thai, Thompson, Turkish, Ugaritic, Urdu, Welsh, Wyandot, Xhosa, Yi, Yiddish, and Yonaguni.
The typeface is Helvetica Neue or Noto Sans.
In another version of the poster, instead of using words to spell out the digits, I use digit glyphs from various alphabets. Included in this version are also any single-glyph words for the digit.
The digit glyph poster uses Adlam, Ainu, Arabic, Balinese, Bengali, Brahmi, Burmese, Chakma, Cham, Chinese, Coptic, Ethiopic, Gujaranti, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Hebrew, Japanese Sino, Javanese, Kannada, Kayahli, Kharoshthi, Khmer, Klingon, Korean, Koreansino, Lao, Lepcha, Limbu, Malayalam, Meetei Mayek, Mongolian, Nko, Odia, Olchiki, Oriya, Osmanya, Punjabi, Roman, Rumi, Sanskrit, Saurashtra, Shan, Sinhala, Sinhala Archaic, Sumerian, Sundanese, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Tibetan, Vai, Yi, and Yonaguni.
Nature Biotechnology cover
My cover design on the 7 April 2026 Nature Biotechnology issue shows the dendrogram that represents a cluster of uniquely expressed (or downregulated) genes in human naive stem cells induced from such cells. Within each dendrogram block, the genomic barcode sequence (sampled from Supplementary Table 1) is depicted with a Code 39 barcode. The highlighted barcode is one of those used for cell isolation.
Ishiguro S. et al. A multi-kingdom genetic barcoding system for precise clone isolation (2026) Nature Biotechnology 44:616–629.
Browse my gallery of cover designs.
Happy 2026 π Day—
Art for the 5%
Celebrate π Day (March 14th) and enjoy the art — but only if you're part of the 5%.
Go ahead, see what you can't see.
Ishihara's Tests for Colour Deficiency
Authentic and accurate images of Ishihara's test plates photographed (and lovingly color-corrected) from the 38-plate Ishihara's Tests for Colour Deficiency.
I also provide the position, size, and color of each circle on each test plate.
Symmetric alternatives to the ordinary least squares regression
What immortal hand or eye, could frame thy fearful symmetry? — William Blake, "The Tyger"
This month, we look at symmetric regression, which, unlike simple linear regression, it is reversible — remaining unaltered when the variables are swapped.
Simple linear regression can summarize the linear relationship between two variables `X` and `Y` — for example, when `Y` is considered the response (dependent) and `X` the predictor (independent) variable.
However, there are times when we are not interested (or able) to distinguish between dependent and independent variables — either because they have the same importance or the same role. This is where symmetric regression can help.
Luca Greco, George Luta, Martin Krzywinski & Naomi Altman (2025) Points of significance: Symmetric alternatives to the ordinary least squares regression. Nat. Methods 22:1610–1612.
Beyond Belief Campaign BRCA Art
Fuelled by philanthropy, findings into the workings of BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes have led to groundbreaking research and lifesaving innovations to care for families facing cancer.
This set of 100 one-of-a-kind prints explore the structure of these genes. Each artwork is unique — if you put them all together, you get the full sequence of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 proteins.
Propensity score weighting
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. —Mr. Spock (Star Trek II)
This month, we explore a related and powerful technique to address bias: propensity score weighting (PSW), which applies weights to each subject instead of matching (or discarding) them.
Kurz, C.F., Krzywinski, M. & Altman, N. (2025) Points of significance: Propensity score weighting. Nat. Methods 22:638–640.