The 76 photos used in Blueprints for Music: Series 2 were scanned using an HP ScanJet 4200C scanner and the software program HP PrecisionScan LT Version 2.0.3cu. The photos were scanned in the order in which they had been selected for purchase. A resolution of 600 dpi was used throughout; this is the maximum resolution for the ScanJet 4200C. The option "Sharpen Detail in Photos" was selected in PrecisionScan LT. In most cases, the output type was set automatically by the program to either "Black and White Photograph" or "Best Color Photograph (16.7 million colors)", depending upon the photo. If instead, the program selected "Black and White Drawing" or "Color Drawing", this was changed manually to "Black and White Photograph" or "Best Color Photograph", respectively. The images were saved as JPEG files.^* To obtain maximum quality, the lowest possible degree of compression was used.

After a given photo was scanned, a tetrahedral die (with faces labeled 1 through 4) was rolled once to determine the number of images to be cropped from the photo. Next, the software program LView Pro 1.B2/386/16-bit for Windows 3.1 was used to crop the photo image. In cases for which more than one image was to be cropped from a photo, the cropped images were required to be non-overlapping. A governing factor in selecting the particular rectangles to be cropped from a photo was the degree to which the resulting cropped images were thought to be interesting; images that were thought to be the most interesting were selected over others.^† (Note: All decisions concerning images were made using a screen resolution of 640 by 480 pixels on a 17-inch CRT monitor attached to a computer running Windows XP Home Edition 2002 Service Pack 2. This was done in a dark room. Final decisions concerning a particular cropped image were made while viewing it in the "full screen" mode of LView Pro for which the image is centered on the display against a black background.)

Cropped images were constrained to be no wider than 600 pixels and no taller than 320 pixels. This was done to ensure that the images would be entirely visible (without scrolling) in a typical Web browser window at a screen resolution of 640 by 480 pixels. (Note: The displayed size of a 600 by 320 pixel image on the system used to create these images was roughly 11.625 inches by 6.125 inches.)

Each cropped image was copied and pasted from LView Pro 1.B2/386/16-bit for Windows 3.1 into Microsoft Paint 5.1. Then it was saved as a PNG file. (Note: Microsoft Paint was used because LView Pro 1.B2/386/16-bit for Windows 3.1 cannot create PNG files.) The PNG format was chosen (over JPEG and GIF) to ensure that the image would not be altered through the process of saving it to a file. Finally, the size of the PNG file was reduced using the software program OptiPNG 0.5.2 by Cosmin Truta.

A total of 200 cropped images were created in this way.

A random 3-digit number was assigned to each of the cropped images. To generate a number, a 10-sided die (with faces labeled 0 through 9) was rolled three times. The first roll was for the hundreds digit, the second was for the tens digit, and the third was for the units digit. In some cases, the same number was assigned to more than one image. For such images, the 10-sided die was rolled one more time. The resulting digit was appended as a decimal digit after the image's 3-digit number. Additional decimal digits were generated and appended as needed until a unique number was assigned to each image. The images were sorted in numerical order using the randomly generated numbers. Then, they were numbered in that order from 1 through 200.

An HTML page was created to display cropped images. Images were placed on a black background at the top of the page. The average color of each cropped image was calculated ^‡. The color of the bottom section of the page was set to the average of these average colors.

* The size of JPEG files that may be opened in the software program LView Pro 1.B2/386/16-bit for Windows 3.1, which was used here for editing, is limited. To make JPEG files be sufficiently small, scans of large photos were partitioned into two or three (overlapping) sections using PrecisionScan LT.

† Each photo image and cropped image was viewed continuously for several minutes until various creatures, or parts thereof, became apparent. In the process, layers of creatures were observed ranging in size from large to extremely small. Some appeared to be on the surface of the image. Others were doing something within the scene. Some appeared to be reflected or projected onto surfaces that had been photographed. Some were distorted. Some were consistent with the location that had been photographed but not with the time period in which the photo had been taken. They were frequently seen in trees or in a field of small plants. Often they were found near the edges of a photo. They were readily seen on uniformly-colored backgrounds. Many were wearing hats.

‡ The software program Color Average Calculator by VDT software was used to determine the average color of a cropped image.