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I would like to dedicate my PhD thesis for the dear ones who unconditionally supported to see me through to the other side.

I intend to do the honours through the ancient keralite tradition of scribing on a Thaliyola with a Narayam. This practice is roughly equivalent to the western tradition of messengers in olden-day courts delivering announcements/invitations in a vellum parchment with the content scribed with a feather quill.

The only image I could find was from Wikimedia commons,thaliyola

by Musafir, Sreejithk2000, 8 Jan 2008. Licensed CC-BY-SA.

I would like to typeset something using Tikz or native latex for the parchment background (and obviously the text that will be scribed on) using xetex or luatex since overlaying text on this image seems suboptimal.

As a first thought, it sounds like the I could use a Tikz node with jagged edges (given in the tutorial sections of the tikz manual), some shadowing and use a wooden texture filling, but there could be some better alternatives out there for this naive thinking. For the Narayam, I might simply have to drop it, since it is a real-world solid rather than some typographically amenable shape.

May I seek help from the community towards achieving this? I am looking for some creative suggestions something along the lines of the answers to the Cthulhu worshipping mad-man question.

What I specifically need help with

  1. One could borrow and adapt the parchment idea (though I am not clear how) from the Cthulhu question. What I want to know is how to obtain the randomness associated with the jagged orientation due to the uneven cuts/burrs (projections). The jagged shape given in Tikz manual's tutorial section titled tutorial 5:Diagrams as simple graphs (page 66) seems like a good starting point, but the randomness seems rather methodic, rather than something that could be passed of as cut & dried palm leaves. Also notice the dent in the bottom leaf. In this context, as a distant connection, one is reminded of David Carlisle's typewriter package wherein the grayness, angles and everything are pseudo-randomly assigned to monospaced characters and is a work of beauty. I wonder if some ideas can be extended to this case, maybe programmed through a lua backend.
  2. The bruises and scratches in the wood grain, especially the dark wood of the upper leaf. The tikz manual's patterns section (page 666) does not have a wooden texture options (and mostly consists of regular stuff like checkerboard, stripes etc.).
  3. How to punch a jagged hole and connect the two leaves with a white thread?

The Chulthu question provides only a basic parchment background (with uniform edges) and does not provide clues to these specific questions.

Dr Krishnakumar Gopalakrishnan
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  • You should ask this on graphics design SE and if they answer, ask here how to draw it. I don't expect a lot of people here to be familiar with such concepts. Also the linked question is a typography question. You are asking for a complete design which is unfortunately off topic here. – percusse Jul 17 '18 at 11:30
  • @percusse I am not convinced that it is off-topic. We know pretty much what we need to draw. I cannot see how this question is different. The coffee-stains thing invoked a lot of excitement and the Cthulhu thing was also enthusiastically accepted (though it didn't provide a description of the final product). There was even a question on enulating ink blots from a fountain pen. I am a bit disappointed with the discouragement. If you could critically comment on why this question should be treated differently, we could evaluate your reasons and consider moving the question to a sister site. – Dr Krishnakumar Gopalakrishnan Jul 17 '18 at 11:35
  • Previous questions don't grant a pass for offtopic questions. Some questions have traction some don't. There is no objectivity or quantitative metric about what constitutes as valid or acceptable. If it doesn't fly off then it gets closed otherwise becomes a popular one. But that doesn't change the fact that they are all off topic. Again, what I am saying is that you have an exceedingly specific request that requires a design. You are not asking how to draw funny apples etc. – percusse Jul 17 '18 at 11:42
  • The parchment part is already covered by Ctulhu. What else do you need for this ? – percusse Jul 17 '18 at 11:44
  • @percusse the last comment is a valid point. I shall update the question on what I think will be difficult. I really didn't want to invest time (because thesis content obviously can use more polish) before gauging the opinion of experts here (if this is even possible). – Dr Krishnakumar Gopalakrishnan Jul 17 '18 at 11:46
  • @percusse I have updated the question with a specific subset of things that I could use some help with. I do not agree with your comment there is no objectivity or quantitative metric since it seems to convey that there is some sort of unconscious bias towards popular questions (that have already gained traction) though they may be off-topic, they are kept open. Also, I have seen questions and contributions by tireless TeX stalwarts being accepted by brethren. I am not accusing this as a cabal, but merely noting an observation. This seemingly differential approach may deter newcomers. – Dr Krishnakumar Gopalakrishnan Jul 17 '18 at 12:08
  • Alternatively you can print an image of parchment on paper and write on it with a pen and scan that, or better still, write on actual parchment. Or, slightly more practical, create the desired result in a drawing tool (Inkscape, GIMP, Photoshop, ...) and export to pdf. – Marijn Jul 17 '18 at 12:24
  • Also: I do like the question and the idea to do this fully in LaTeX, however, as with other questions, it would be nice if you can provide a starting point using an MWE document, maybe based on the coffee stain question, and ask for specific features/improvements to be implemented based on that code. – Marijn Jul 17 '18 at 12:26
  • @Marijn thank you for the encouragement. Although I usually do post MWEs, I didn't create one here because, I thought it would be a daunting effort to do so. The time lost might be precious, if in the end, the TeX experts here thought this might be impossible or too far-fetched to achieve. I just wanted to gauge the feel for such a thing before investing too far in that. While it might be too difficult for a novice like me, for a TeX expert, for all one knows, this might be rather an easy job. If there is not sufficient interest, I will come back with a MWE in a few weeks from now. – Dr Krishnakumar Gopalakrishnan Jul 17 '18 at 12:39
  • @percusse People have even asked about drawing football fields in the last couple of days. I am asking something which is going to be a part of a worldwide accessible permanent record in a serious document honoring the people I really care about. And yet, the votes to close are piling up, while the football field questions gets more traction without being closed while still being no different in principle. How fair is that? How could I have asked this differently here? What was the mistake and how could I rectify it for the next time? – Dr Krishnakumar Gopalakrishnan Jul 17 '18 at 13:08
  • @Krishna There is no mistake. I'm just trying to explain that this is happening because this place is a social construct. Some off topic questions are more appealing others rub the wrong way. That's what I meant in my earlier comments. – percusse Jul 17 '18 at 13:14
  • @percusse thank you. If I find the time to do this, I may make a MWE a few weeks later after full proof-reading of thesis. Hope I can reopen this question at a later point of time to include the MWE and maybe it will get traction then. – Dr Krishnakumar Gopalakrishnan Jul 17 '18 at 13:17
  • note typewriter package isn't restricted to monospace, if you give it a variable width font it will use that – David Carlisle Jul 17 '18 at 14:06
  • @Krishna Just to be clear I didn't vote to close this. – percusse Jul 17 '18 at 15:33
  • @percusse no issues at all. In a way, it is true that this is too broad. We are all different people. Evidently the moderators think that some additional refinement is needed to narrow the scope and I respect the decision. – Dr Krishnakumar Gopalakrishnan Jul 17 '18 at 15:36
  • I don't see why you've ruled out overlaying text on the image. Nothing you produce using LaTeX will look like the image you've posted. It just won't. Also, do check whether you're allowed to do this. I assume you're not in North America, but even so, there may be some constraints on what's acceptable. Do remember that there is no reason whatsoever to do this in LaTeX and LaTeX is not a tool well-designed for this kind of job. A football field is much more amenable, being more diagram-like and geometric. One reason your question may not get traction is because no answer would do a good job. – cfr Jul 17 '18 at 22:51
  • @cfr that image is CC-BY-SA licensed. It would be weird to start citing right from the dedications page. In my university, anything is allowed as long as it doesn't offend anybody. I am in England. – Dr Krishnakumar Gopalakrishnan Jul 17 '18 at 22:54
  • I forget what the SA means. But there are ways of integrating attributions for images - it doesn't necessarily mean something which looks like a citation. I've done this on covers etc. Or sometimes it makes sense to have the attribution on the back of the cover, for example. Take a look at some books - they often include attributions for pictures used on the covers, but they don't have citations on their cover pages. – cfr Jul 17 '18 at 22:58
  • And, yes, UK places seem to be a lot less rigid re. formatting requirements. – cfr Jul 17 '18 at 22:59

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