I got the idea for this project a while ago when I was working with the Python Imaging Library (PIL) for the first time. First of all, PIL is a Python module – meaning that it lays a set of easily accessible capabilities on top of the Python programming language. In this case, the features that are provided are all image-based.

I was looking through the documentation for the PIL and one of the functions struck me as being potentially interesting – the ability to convert text to pictures and vice versa. Considering myself an occasional practitioner of abstract photography, as well as being familiar with some texts, I thought I would try to convert a book into an image. But I never really had the time or an excuse to do so until recently.