简体中文
EnglishWhat Is benfry.com?
Updated
benfry.com is Ben Fry's personal site: a portfolio and archive covering his projects, writing, and news, primarily from 1998–2010. It is the place to look for his books on Processing and data visualization, selected project write-ups, and older news entries. The site itself states that it has not been updated regularly for a long time and that new work is now at Fathom, so treat benfry.com as a historical archive rather than a current feed.
What you'll find on the site
The homepage is organized around a few simple sections: projects, writing, genetics, and about, plus a books section and a news list.
Books
The site describes three books associated with Fry:
| Book | Notes from the site |
|---|---|
| Getting Started with Processing | Written with Casey Reas as a short, inexpensive beginner's guide; example-heavy and aimed at non-programmers |
| Visualizing Data | Published by O'Reilly in 2007; covers the data visualization process and projects including Salary vs. Performance, Zipdecode, and Anemone |
| Processing | MIT Press; the site notes the second edition was available |
Projects and writing
The projects and writing sections document visualization and design work, including pieces such as All Streets (a compilation of 26 million road segments), Salary vs. Performance, Zipdecode, and Anemone. Several of these double as case studies in Visualizing Data, so the site and the book reinforce each other.
News archive
The news list runs from roughly 2008 to 2010 and includes the launch of Fathom (23 July 2010), an interview at Rhizome on the Processing 1.0 release, and Fry's appointment as director of Seed Visualization and its Phyllotaxis Lab. These entries are dated and should be read as a record of that period.
Who it's for
- Beginners learning Processing who want background on the book and its authors.
- Designers and researchers looking for early examples of data visualization practice.
- Readers tracing the history of Processing and of Fry's studio work before Fathom.
Practical caveats
The site explicitly says it was designed in 2008 and that content is "primarily an archive from 1998–2010." For current work, projects, and updates, the site points to Fathom. If you need the latest material, start there; use benfry.com when you specifically want the earlier record, the book descriptions, or the archived project pages.