Handy Handbook of Hands

Handy Handbook of Hands is about the finger binary systems. The first part of this book shows how to count and display binary numbers on the fingers. In the second part, a binary finger alphabet is developed that enables the communication of words with fingers.

Children learn to count with their fingers at an early age. The Latin word for fingers or toes “digitus” is the root of the English word digit. A normal person has, if nothing unforeseen happens, five digits on each hand. This limits the counting of the fingers to ten. By using binary numbers with the fingers of one or both hands, it is possible to count and display all numbers from 0 to 1023.

Counting in binary is one thing, but fingers can switch from “counting mode” to “text mode”. The binary finger alphabet technique allows communicating words and even entire sentences with the fingers. It is similar to Morse code and gives each letter of the alphabet a specific finger constellation. It is structured from simple finger constellations for the most commonly used letters of the English alphabet to more difficult constellations for rare letters.

Bagerich’s Bogam typeface was used for the design of the book, which worked in harmony with the illustrations. I used Nimbus Sans for the body text.