Graphic Design Set


Galaxy Gauge


Pocket Toolbox


Art Director's Reference


Production Toolpouch


Client Communication


Color Zil Set


Hovertising

 
"Nothing focuses the mind better than the constant sight of a competitor who wants to wipe you off the map." -- Wayne Calloway . . . . . . . . . "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources." -- Albert Einstein . . . . . . . . . "A poem is never finished, only abandoned." -- Paul Valery . . . . . . . . . "Think of and look at your work as though it were done by your enemy. If you look at it to admire it, you are lost." -- Samuel Butler . . . . . . . . . "Kites rise highest against the wind, not with it." -- Sir Winston Churchill . . . . . . . . . "Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats." -- Howard Aiken . . . . . . . . . Picasso was in a park when a woman approached him and asked him to draw a portrait of her. Picasso agreed and quickly sketches her. After handing the sketch to her, she is pleased with the likeness and asks how much she owed to him. Picasso replies: "$5,000." The woman screamed, "but it took you only five minutes." "No, madam, it took me all my life," replied Picasso. -- Unknown . . . . . . . . . "You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertising." -- Norman Douglas . . . . . . . . . "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction." -- Albert Einstein . . . . . . . . . "I will destroy my enemies by converting them to my friends." -- Maimodes . . . . . . . . . "It's a poor workman who blames his tools." -- Unknown . . . . . . . . . Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk, This will teach you to keep your mouth shut." -- Mark Twain . . . . . . . . . "The secret of all effective advertising is not the creation of new and tricky words and pictures, but one of putting familiar words and pictures into new relationships." -- Leo Burnett . . . . . . . . . "Life beats down and crushes the soul, and art reminds you that you have one." -- Stella Adler . . . . . . . . . "What garlic is to food, insanity is to art." -- Unknown . . . . . . . . . "Most people are more comfortable with old problems than with new solutions." -- Anonymous . . . . . . . . . "Simplicity is not the goal. It is the by-product of a good idea and modest expectations." -- Paul Rand . . . . . . . . . "You can't polish a turd." -- David Reddig . . . . . . . . . "We want consumers to say, 'That's a hell of a product' instead of, 'That's a hell of an ad.'" -- Leo Burnett . . . . . . . . . "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." -- Thomas Edison . . . . . . . . . "It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them." -- Mark Twain . . . . . . . . . "When you reach for the stars you may not quite get one, buy you won't come up with a handful of mud either." -- Leo Burnett . . . . . . . . . "... if the kids today had to cast off, count character, use a Haber Rule and do the math, there wouldn't be as many people wanting to pursue a Career in Design." -- Frank Briggs . . . . . . . . . "Typography is two-dimensional architecture, based on experience and imagination, and guided by rules and readability." -- Hermann Zapf . . . . . . . . . "Typography is what language looks like." -- Ellen Lupton . . . . . . . . . "... But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography ..." -- Steve Jobs . . . . . . . . . "Typography has one plain duty before it and that is to convey information in writing." -- Emil Ruder . . . . . . . . . "Faces of type are like men's faces. They have their own expression; their complexion and peculiar twists and turns of line identify them immediately to friends, to whom each is full of identity." -- J.L. Frazier . . . . . . . . . "I'm also interested in calligraphy and occasional book-burning." -- Sergej Malinovski . . . . . . . . . "Give me a laundry list and I'll set it to music." -- Gioacchino Rossini . . . . . . . . . "Designers may be the true intellectuals of the future." -- Paola Antonelli . . . . . . . . . "I have the simplest of tastes. I'm always satisfied with the Best." -- Oscar Wilde . . . . . . . . . "... For us, the visual disease is what we have around, and what we try to do is cure it somehow with design." -- Massimo Vignelli . . . . . . . . . "If you hit a wrong note, it's the next note that you play that makes it good or bad." -- Miles Davis . . . . . . . . . "Tough times do not last but tough people do." -- Deiter Uchdorf . . . . . . . . . "Design is intelligence made visible." -- Don Newgren . . . . . . . . . "Skill in the digital age is confused with mastery of digital tools ..." -- John Maeda . . . . . . . . . "Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works." -- Steve Jobs . . . . . . . . . "The ultimate inspiration is the deadline." -- Nolan Bushnell . . . . . . . . . "Intellectuals solve problems; geniuses prevent them." -- Albert Einstein . . . . . . . . . "The best way to predict the future is to invent it." -- Alan Kay . . . . . . . . . "Asymmetry is the rhythmic expression of funtional design ..." -- Jan Tschichold

About Us

Galaxy Gauge started out in New York City's most famous typography shop, when one of the designers thought he could make a better gauge than anything else available then. The first Galaxy Gauge rulers were good, and over the years, they became more useful to the designer. Color tools were added, and eventually, the originators of the Galaxy Gauge were faced with a tough choice: either they could continue with the growing ruler business, or focus on graphic design. The dilemma was tossed around for a few months until the truth became obvious ... Galaxy Gauge users around the world were proving to be some of the most skilled, and gifted designers in the industry. The Galaxy Designers simply were overshadowed by their users, so they decided to focus on the tools.

After a few more years in NYC, Galaxy Gauge moved to Alabama, then to Colorado, to get deeper into measurement-related issues of our day. Today, Galaxy Gauge continues to add tools and tweak our existing ones.

Our mission-statement: To make the best graphic design tools, manufacture in the U.S.A., and sell them affordably.

-- Mike Wofsey

Refund Policy
 All Galaxy Gauge products are unconditionally guaranteed for 1 year and individual tools can be returned for a full refund within 45 days of purchase. If you ever have a problem or question about any Galaxy Gauge tool, please contact us, we would love to make sure you remain a satisfied Galaxy Gauge Designer!

Contact Info

e-mail:
mike (insert the symbol for 'at') galaxygauge (insert the symbol for 'dot') com
Emails usually responded to within 3 business days, and usually much, much faster!

Our Mailing Address:
Scientific Illustration Services
1019 8th Street, Suite 107
Golden, CO 80401
United States of America

Galaxy Gauge is owned by Scientific Illustration Services Corp.
Please make all checks payable to:
Scientific Illustration Services Corp.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I pay by check?
Yes. Contact us by e-mail, and we'll arrange it. Make checks payable to Scientific Illustration Services.

Can I pay with PayPal?
Yes. Send us an e-mail, PayPal is fine.

I need technical support!
Send us an e-mail. We love to help our customers out with their measurement-related questions.

Where are Galaxy Gauge Tools manufactured?
All of our tools are manufactured in the USA baby!

I live in Canada/Australia, don't you have a special deal for me?
We used to have a special deal for Canadians and Australians because the Canadian Dollar was so low compared to the U.S. Dollar, and we were doing our part to equalize the currencies. But now the US Dollar has fallen, clearly our efforts were a success.

How much to ship internationally?
A few bucks extra. If you live in Asia, go to the home page and check out Galaxy Gauge Asia.

I noticed that shipping and handling is $2.95 extra, how will my tools ship?
By United States Postal service, generally takes 3-5 days, and 5-10 days to international addresses, EXCEPT to Canada, which takes several days longer due to Canadian Customs.

What are the copyright restrictions on the A-Z Graphic Type Library and Super Initial Caps artwork?
There are almost none. You can use them as you see fit, as long as you don't sell them to anyone else. They must stay free.

Are Galaxy Gauge rulers as accurate as steel, plastic and wooden rulers?
They are generally more accurate for a few reasons. First, Galaxy Gauge rules are made of a special material with an incredibly high dimensional stability. Unlike steel, they won't expend and contract in the cold and heat. Second, they are very thin. Unlike plastic rules, there is very little parallax error while sighting through the gauge. Finally, our tools have been produced exclusively by using extremely-high precision computerized imaging equipment, that is accurate to better than one hundredth of the diameter of a human hair.

Is the Color Map as reliable for color as a system like Pantone Brand?
Pantone makes some very good products, but ours are a little different. Color Map is for people who work quite a bit with CMYK process color. If you work with spot colors and special inks, you'll still need products from the Pantone Matching System. We've used Pantone for years and have only good things to say about their products.

Any hints on matching typefaces using the Font Finder 2.0?
First decide if your font has serifs, those little stems at the end of the letters. If not, go the the San Serif section. If so, check if the serifs are regular or flat, and go to the appropriate section. Next, look for 'giveaway' letters like the lowercase 'a', which vary in style from font to font. Try to match these letters. Next compare more subtle details like the shapes of the letters, and other details. It takes a bit of time at first, but pros can match typefaces in minutes. You might find a small magnifier useful here.

How can I use the Screen Finder to find my sample's line frequency?
Get yourself a magnifier, and place the Screen finder over the sample. Use the magnifier to compare the different line screen settings to your sample. Use the cross hairs to get a good comparison.

When I compare my new Galaxy Gauge to my old ruler, they're not the same length!
Two possible reasons, first, your old rule may have expanded or contracted a bit, throwing off the accuracy, or if you are comparing picas, the Galaxy Gauge (as does DTP software) uses the corrected pica, of 72 points to the inch. The uncorrected pica had some error built into it that old ruler manufacturers dutifully built into their rulers too. The originators of the pica carefully designed a system based on the inch that was broken into small, decimal, base twelve units. But the error is so small, that along the line, ruler-makers forgot that the pica was just a function of the inch, and instead figured it was its own unit! So they started making new picas on one old, slightly off standard. Galaxy Gauge brings the pica back to its original, undiluted accuracy.

Is the pica related to an inch?
Yes. It is now, as it was originally. The aspect of the pica that confused ruler-makers for so many years was that it was being gauged by the pica standard, mistakenly thought of as an independent unit, rather than a function of the inch.