Turning the Pages is software technology for viewing scanned books on-line in a realistic and detailed manner. It was developed by the British Library in partnership with Armadillo Systems.
The original version, first released in 1997, uses Adobe Shockwave.
In January 2007 version 2.0 version was developed for Microsoft Vista using a browser-based Windows Presentation Foundation format. Features include page turns that are modeled on the actually deformation of different types of material (for example in a book with vellum pages, which is heavier than printed on paper, will appear to collapse under its own weight as it is turned). For certain books, such as the Sherborne Missal, the gold leaf catches the light as the book moves around.
The British Library has released a "Turning the Pages Toolkit" for libraries around the world to put their collections online.
The Codex Leicester along with Codex Arundel was one of the first to be made available in the 2.0 format, with Bill Gates saying "This is an innovative way to bring treasures - including mine - to a new audience,"
Famous quotes containing the words turning the, turning and/or pages:
“The function of comedy is to dispel ... unconsciousness by turning the searchlight of the keenest moral and intellectual analysis right on to it.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“As for types like my own, obscurely motivated by the conviction that our existence was worthless if we didn’t make a turning point of it, we were assigned to the humanities, to poetry, philosophy, painting—the nursery games of humankind, which had to be left behind when the age of science began. The humanities would be called upon to choose a wallpaper for the crypt, as the end drew near.”
—Saul Bellow (b. 1915)
“If the pages of this book contain some successful verse, the reader must excuse me the discourtesy of having usurped it first. Our nothingness differs little; it is a trivial and chance circumstance that you should be the reader of these exercises and I their author.”
—Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986)