Play-By-Play Commentary

I'll Show You 'Outside the Box'

Whoa. Take your browser window and stretch it wide, my friends. If you've widened it to the full width of your screen already, run out and buy a 30-inch display.

There's never been a shot like this in Layer Tennis before. Inman isn't just playing with the surrounding elements on the web page -- he's consuming them. The rules call for an image 900 x 280 pixels; Inman's magnum opus measures a whopping 1920 x 458. I questioned how Inman's original concept could fit in the box, and Inman has answered, and that answer is "Fuck the box."

Fair? I don't know. But impressive? Hell yes. At a technical level, the image is inserted as a CSS background, which provides it with precise interplay with the web page elements even when the browser window is resized. (Alas, it also prevents those of you on small displays from scrolling to see the entire image. Seriously, get a new display, cheapo.) My sideline sources tell me Inman planned this out in advance -- at least technically -- with the tacit approval of the Layer Tennis honchos.

It's not just big, though, it's fiendishly clever: Markers for volleys 9 and 10 which do align, standard size be damned. A "Ketchup" marker for the B match, mocking those laggards for having fallen, as of this writing, two volleys behind the pace of this match (get it? "catch up"?). A corresponding "Mustard" marker referring to nothing other than its own color, but which color was plucked from the Layer Tennis web page design itself. And then, literally to top it all, a pixel-perfectly-placed "I ♥" next to the "Layer Tennis Live" in the page header.

My scorecard had this match tilted toward Glass heading into the final round, but I'm calling this one the best shot of the entire Layer Tennis season.

Play by play commentary for this match is provided, as it happens, by John Gruber.

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Live Match Blog

Naz and Sam Peeling Back the Layers on last Friday's amazing photographic and musical live Layer Tennis Match. No Tennis this week by the way, we'll be back live on the 19th jc-03.10

Layer 10 is up. And that's a wrap! Big thanks to Sam, Naz, Mark, and all the fans. No voting this week, but be sure to sign up for Season Tickets and be the first to get match info and learn how to play in our qualifying matches. Layer Tennis is taking a week off, we'll see you back here on March 19th for our fourth exhibition match. dw-03.05

The coin-flip and Match Preview are up for today's live Photographic Exhibition Match. We're almost set to go. Tweet your comments and include #lyt and then follow the chatter on our Crowd Page. And if you don't have 'em already, sign up for Free Season Tickets for news, contests and maybe even a chance for you to take the court this season. jc-03.05

Mark Simonson shares his insider's view of Friday's typographic battle, including a nifty chart of all the glyphs created during the match. bb-03.01

Schedule and Archive

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