Earth Platinum, published by Millennium House in 2012,[1] is the world's largest atlas at 6 ft × 4.5 ft (1.8 m × 1.4 m). It surpasses the famous Klencke Atlas at the British Library, which held the record of the world's largest atlas since 1660.[2]

The atlas

edit

Earth Platinum weighs 150 kilograms (330 lb) and has 128 pages, each of which is so large it takes two hands (or people) to turn a page.[3] The book is a mixture of maps and gigapixel photography. The maps include large orthographic maps of each continent (showing political and physical features), maps of the oceans, (including shipwreck locations) and poles, as well as very detailed regional maps. The book also includes a double-page 6 feet x 9 feet layout of the world's flags. Among its many spectacular images, Earth Platinum contains the world's largest image in a book, a photo of the Shanghai skyline. This image size is 272 gigapixels and made up of more than 12 thousand images tiled together.[4]

Libraries which hold a copy of the atlas include the National Library of New Zealand, Wellington and the State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.[5][6]

Production

edit

The atlas was conceived by Australian publisher Gordon Cheers and published in Australia, with the help of a team of over 88 cartographers from around the world.[7][8] The atlas was printed in Italy and hand-bound in Hong Kong; the cartography was co-ordinated by a company in New Zealand.[9]

Published 20 February 2012, Earth Platinum follows publication of the "smaller" Earth Blue[10] and Earth Gold, both 2 ft x 18 inch, 30 kg, and both limited editions.[11] Earth Platinum is priced at US$100,000; only 31 copies were printed.[12][13]

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ Earth Platinum, Millennium House, February 2012. ISBN 978-1-921811-11-1
  2. ^ Mark Brown, arts correspondent (2010-01-26). "Largest book in the world goes on show for the first time | Books". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2012-05-25. {{cite news}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  3. ^ "iafrica.com | cooltech | science & nature | Biggest book revealed". Technology.iafrica.com. 2010-10-06. Archived from the original on 2012-03-04. Retrieved 2012-05-25.
  4. ^ "Shanghai Skyline - Stitched From 12,000 Pictures - 上海风景线 - 由12000张图片拼成". GigaPan. Retrieved 2012-05-25.
  5. ^ "Giant Atlas - Mark Bagnall". RNZ. 2014-11-25. Retrieved 2022-08-25.
  6. ^ State Library of New South Wales (2019-04-17). "World's largest atlas". State Library of NSW. Retrieved 2022-08-25.
  7. ^ "Extreme Cartography - World's Largest Atlas Produced with ArcGIS | ArcNews Online". Esri.com. 2012-03-09. Retrieved 2012-05-25.
  8. ^ "Kiwis leave their mark on world's biggest atlas :: Idealog :: the magazine and website of New Zealand creative business, ideas and innovation". Idealog. 2011-11-15. Archived from the original on 2012-05-05. Retrieved 2012-05-25.
  9. ^ Easton, Paul (2011-11-22). "Atlas offers giant window on the world". Stuff. Retrieved 2022-08-25.
  10. ^ Earth Blue, Millennium House. ISBN 978-1-921209-14-7
  11. ^ Huxley, John (2008-10-06). "Even Charles Atlas might have thought this a weighty tome - World". Melbourne: Theage.com.au. Retrieved 2012-05-25.
  12. ^ "World record". SL Magazine. 8:3: 5. Spring 2015.
  13. ^ "Earth Platinum: World's largest book on display at State Library of NSW". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 2015-06-19. Retrieved 2015-06-19.
edit