Origami/How to Read Origami Diagrams

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[edit] History of Diagrams

Diagrams have been used in various forms to depict how to create origami, usually in books. The concept of diagramming originated in the 1797 book “Senbazuru Orikata”, the first origami book ever to be published. The diagrams in this book, however, were very unclear, and often only showed the end result of the folding process, leaving the folder to guess at how the model was created. Later books, however, began to attempt to devise a system of showing precisely how a model was folded. These ranged from unwieldy set of symbols to a photograph or sketch of each step attempting to show the motion of a fold. However, none of these systems were sufficient to diagram all models, and so none were adopted on a large system. In the 1950’s and 60’s, Akira Yoshizawa put forth an idea for a system of diagramming. He employed dotted and dashed lines to represent mountain and valley folds, and a few other symbols such as the “inflate” and “round” symbols. This system caught the attention of Samuel Randlett and Robert Harbin, who added a few symbols such as “rotate” and “zoom in”, and then adopted it as the standard. The Yoshizawa-Randlett system was then accepted as the default throughout the international origami community, and is still in general use today.

[edit] The Yoshizawa-Randlett System

{intro}

• The valley fold is represented as a dashed line.

Ex: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

• The mountain fold is represented as a dotted line.

Ex: _.._.._.._.._.._.._.._.._.._..

• Reverse Folds usually have an arrow showing where the flap will go in addition to the mountain or valley fold on the outside of the flap.
• The Fold and Unfold maneuver has an arrow that starts on the flap to be folded, touches where the flap would go in a mountain or valley fold, and then goes back towards the starting point.
• Inflate
• Rotate
• Turn Over
• Push Here
• Sink
• Bisect
• Repeat Behind
• Enlarge
• Cut-Away View
• X-Ray Line
• Cut
• Hold Here

[edit] Later Additions (not widely used)

There are some symbols that have been used by some authors but are not accepted into the Yoshizawa-Randlett system.

• Robert Lang has introduced a “view from here” symbol that looks like an eye which has proven to be very useful, especially with his signature three-dimensional models.
• Several different methods have been introduced to point out to the folder to pay attention to a certain spot; these range from a letter or number to a circle, dot, or other geometric symbol.