Comparison charts
A comparison sheet is not a table with numbers in it. It is an arrangement that makes a quantity felt — the A series drawn at true relative size so the halving rule is obvious at a glance, fruit lined up so that a difference in sugar is a length rather than a figure.
That is a kind, not a style: a comparison can be plain vector work or fully illustrated. What it cannot be is a list, because a list is precisely the thing it exists to replace.
They work best where a decision gets made — beside a printer, in a kitchen, at a dressing table.
MARS
size, distances and time — computed from rotation, orbit and mass
NAIL SHAPES
eight shapes at one scale · what tells them apart in millimetres
VIDEO CARRIERS
nine formats at true scale — and the frame that kept growing after the carrier stopped
BEER STYLES
colour, bitterness and strength of 15 styles from the BJCP 2021 guidelines
MINIMUM MATURATION
how long each spirit must sit in the barrel before it may bear its name — fifteen legal minimums on one scale
SUGAR IN DRINKS
how many sugar cubes hide in a glass — from water to cola, by the USDA reference
TEA PLANT CULTIVARS
assamica against sinensis · leaves at one scale · six cultivars
COOKING SALTS
table, kosher, sea and flake: the sodium in the very same spoon — per the makers’ labels, drawn to true scale
SUGAR IN FRUIT
grams of natural sugar per 100 g of fresh fruit — and how much water sits beside it
THE SCOVILLE SCALE
chilli heat from the bell pepper to Pepper X: four peppers drawn to true scale, and the ladder of varieties
LANGUAGE FAMILIES
who is related to whom — on the numerals three and two in twenty-seven languages
AUDIO CARRIERS
seven carriers over a century at one scale, and what each one brought first
KINDS OF BASS
eight instruments at one scale · what each is about and how it sounds
ACOUSTIC BODY SHAPES
what each one was made for · from the front room to the stage, at true scale
SAMPLE RATES
what band each one describes, how much it leaves the filter, and what a minute weighs
THE BEAUFORT SCALE
thirteen forces of wind — from water like a mirror to a wave of fourteen metres
THE TEN CLOUD GENERA
three levels of the troposphere to one scale, and the ten genera that live in them
COLOUR GAMUTS
sRGB, Display P3, Rec. 2020 and ProPhoto RGB on the CIE 1931 chromaticity diagram
THE VERTICAL PLANET
from the Challenger Deep to the summit of Everest · one scale, nothing compressed
THE FUJITA SCALE
six categories of tornado damage — and the two different winds assigned to them
THE MOMENT MAGNITUDE SCALE
what a single step hides: ×10 in recorded amplitude and roughly ×32 in released energy — drawn to true scale
THE ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM
eighteen decades of frequency · and how much of it the eye sees
THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON SCALE
five categories of hurricane wind — and how much more damage each next one does
SPECTRAL LINES
five gases on one wavelength scale, from the violet edge to the red
WHAT A TORNADO BREAKS
twenty-eight damage indicators — and the wind at which each one gives way
BALLS BY THE RULES
eleven sports at true relative size — circumference, mass, pressure, and who sets them
THE LARGEST COUNTRIES
the ten largest by surface area — as squares at true scale, each inside the next
PAPER SIZES
the A series · from A0 to A6
CAMERA SENSORS
seven sizes at one scale, with the crop factor computed from the diagonal
THE TALLEST BUILDINGS
the ten tallest at true scale — and where the floors in them end
MOTORCYCLE CLASSES
rake, trail, wheelbase and seat height — six classes drawn at one scale
PETROL AND DIESEL
nine lines of comparison, and in three of them the requirement is the same for both