Α—Π · An autonomous publishing platform · est. 2013
You write the words.
The system finds the form.
The press prints the book.
Name any subject and an autonomous system composes a publication from it in seconds. No designer touches the page. Everything the press has ever set is filed in a public library; the printing is yours to commission.
Autonomous composition · live
- phallic vegetables · 18/42
- A4 · broadside
- 16pp.
- 03 · stacked bars
- Orange
Three hands, no author
The User
chooses the words. A subject typed into a field is the entire design brief — the smallest one possible, and the only decision left to a person.
The Algorithm
finds the form. It retrieves what it judges most relevant, lays it into the template, and sets the type. It has no taste, and never hesitates.
The Reader
finishes the work. Meaning arrives only when someone opens the book and decides what the machine's choices were trying to say.
From the library
All 48 →From the thesis · Karolis Kosas
“Having little control over the visual side of the publication, the users are forced to utilize language as their only design tool. The process thus moves into the realm of literature, where a narrator tells a story and leaves its visual representation to evolve independently in the imagination of his reader.”
From the journal
All essays →Reading the Library as an Ice Core
Forty-eight publications, thirteen years, one archive read as sediment: what the press's own shelves say about the search-engine years.
The Scraping Wars
In 2013 a machine photocopying the index was art. A decade later it was litigation. Death of the author, continued.
A Brief History of Anonymous Press
How a graduate thesis by Karolis Kosas became an autonomous publisher, a cult object, and a question that refuses to settle.
Guides for makers
All guides →Honest comparisons of the tools the press has opinions about — where to print a zine, what to design it in, and where to sell it.
The Best Writing & Editing Tools for Self-Publishers
Drafting, editing and typesetting a book without a publisher behind you: Scrivener, Atticus, Vellum, Grammarly, ProWritingAid and Hemingway, weighed.
The Best Newsletter Platforms for Independent Publishers
Substack, Ghost, Kit, beehiiv, MailerLite and Buttondown — where to build a readership you actually own, with the fees and lock-ins spelled out.
The Best Portfolio Website Builders for Designers & Artists
Squarespace, Webflow, Wix, Format, Cargo and Carrd compared for showing — and selling — design work, without a developer on retainer.