There is an increasing mix of languages in many countries. For example in the US there is a lot of English, Spanish and Chinese. However, in book stores there is mainly English so other languages are suppressed. Keeping three copies of every book in the shelf would be just too expensive.

The idea is to print the text in books in three or more languages but overlaid and in different colors. Then readers can choose glasses with a color filter to select which language to read. The glasses could be fancy heirloom quality or cheap things like they distribute them for some 3D movies where you have red and green filter to separate the images.

This won't work for books with color illustrations, but cheap novels that now print just black/white could reach a lot more customers. The printing process would not be much more expensive since the colors don't have to align; just print one text over the other. Also schoolbooks could benefit. All kids get the same book and can easily switch language by switching glasses. They may even consider it fun to learn different languages this way. - Anyone an idea how to make teachers talk several languages simultaneously?
-- kbecker, Jan 07 2004

Didn't we do this not too long ago but with UV light or something?
-- phoenix, Jan 07 2004


yep
-- squeak, Jan 08 2004


Y'know you can get books in two languages. Usually, first language on the left hand pages, second on the right. A downfall is that the print is a bit on the teeny side so that the books aren't a foot thick.

A problem with this idea is that the texts would have to be in fairly light colours, if my memory of colour coding pretend spy messages and looking through toffee wrappers serves me correctly. Otherwise the filters would be too dark to see through. Light colours are difficult to read.
-- squeak, Jan 08 2004


//Y'know you can get books in two languages.// Yes, I actually have several, but for the reasons you mentioned they are not my favorites and the book stores don't like them either.

//A problem with this idea is that the texts would have to be in fairly light colours ... looking through toffee wrappers// The toffee wrappers need light colors because they are not matched to the ink. With a better match you get better contrast. It won't be perfect black on white, but pretty dark gray.
-- kbecker, Jan 08 2004


I'm colo(u)r blind, enough said.
-- rbl, Jan 08 2004



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