We had so much fun playing with these and can't wait to tinker again!

Close-up of a display reading "Partly Cloudy in Hong Kong" in cursive font

Two hands holding a tiny display

These are powered by the Raspberry Pi Pico with a Pico Display on top — just 2in long and 1in wide!

Seven hardware gadgets together, all showing different colored text displays

Karlie fiddling with a gadget connected to a laptop, with a series of other gadgets laid out on the table next to her

People sitting around a long table, smiling and chatting while using their laptops

Hardware gadgets scattered across the table, showing different displays

We've been dreaming about hardware hacking for a few years and finally have the pieces we need. Ben, Karlie, and Andy put together about twenty of these gadgets. We did a dry run making weather displays in the studio yesterday, then got students set up at Ben’s information design class today.

Here be Dragons | Fathom Information Design Fathom's recent encounters with maps.

We visited the Leventhal Map & Education Center last year and, after diving into everything from maps of dragons to geographic data visualizations, Karlie shared some thoughts on how map-making has transformed over time.

You can find the blog post at fathom.info/notebook/260122

A culture of work we believe in | Fathom Information Design Katherine reflects on how we've been thinking and talking about generative AI in the studio.

In the latest post on our blog, Katherine reflects on how we've been thinking and talking about generative AI in the studio.

www.fathom.info/notebook/260...

Snelle data analyses met tool Rowboat - Kenteken.TV blog Met gratis tool Rowboat kan je geavanceerde analyses van RDW opendata gegevens maken. Kenteken.tv legt uit hoe je dat doet.

Thanks, Jasper, for this detailed write-up about using Rowboat to look at Dutch vehicle registration data! It's always a nice boost to hear that the tool is useful and helps with doing this kind of exploration more easily.

blog.kenteken.tv/2025/10/15/s...

Thanks for using Rowboat in 2025! We appreciate everyone who's checked out the tool and shared it around. Look forward to more exciting updates in 2026!

For our latest release notes, visit docs.rowboat.net/releases/202...

Chart showing ranges of time between CreatedAt and ClosedAt. The longest line has the title "Auto Update" and lasted about 2 years and 4 months.

We just pushed out our last big batch of Rowboat improvements and fixes before the end of the year.

Fun fact: the most long-lived issue that we managed to close in this time was one that had been open for 2 years and 4 months. Feels good to finally get that one resolved!

If you're feeling nostalgic, you can also revisit the last few years of Fathom holiday gifts here: www.fathom.info/holiday/

Wishing you all a joyful holiday season and a happy new year!

Blocky representations of treats in a circle around the letter F (for Fathom). 

Four blocky representations of treats in a grid, with titles of dishes and names of people who contributed them.

Four blocky representations of treats in a grid, with titles of dishes and names of people who contributed them.

Four blocky representations of treats in a grid, with titles of dishes and names of people who contributed them.

This year we celebrated the holidays by gathering together our favorite cozy winter treats and comfort meals to share with our friends and families.

You can visit the charming animated cookbook Paul put together to read, print, and share our recipes: www.fathom.info/holiday/25/

2025 at Fathom! | Fathom Information Design 2025 was a pretty mind-blowing year for our work in pandemic preparedness.

As is now tradition, Ellory put together a year end recap to keep our avid fans updated on all we’ve been up to (both in and out of the office) in 2025.

It’s now up on our blog if you would like to check it out: www.fathom.info/notebook/251...

Wishing you all a safe and restful holiday season!

100&Change | Fathom Information Design Sentinel, our long-time collaboration with the Sabeti Lab and IGH, has been awarded the MacArthur Foundation 100&Change grant.

Last month, we shared that Sentinel, our collaboration with the Sabeti Lab and IGH, has been awarded the MacArthur Foundation 100&Change grant.

We wrote a bit more about the news, reflecting on how this project came to be and how it continues to give us hope: www.fathom.info/notebook/251...

Our collaborators, Christian and Pardis, standing in front of a large screen displaying our pathogen surveillance platform called Lookout. 

Katherine standing in front of a large screen displaying our pathogen surveillance platform called Lookout.  

We are beyond excited that our collaboration with the Sabeti Lab and IGH to develop an outbreak detection and response framework has been awarded the MacArthur Foundation 100&Change grant!

You can check out the announcement here: www.macfound.org/press/press-...

The text "Rowboat Desktop" over a gradient background.

We just launched a desktop version of Rowboat!

* Open much larger files (offline!)
* Own Desktop as a one-time purchase.
* Use a double-clickable app that’s even faster than the web version.

Browser or desktop, your data never leaves your machine.

Read more: www.fathom.info/notebook/251...

Following the completion of his summer 2024 internship, we now welcome Andy back as a full time member of the team.

Voitko sanoa uudelleen? Outside of the studio, Mark’s been studying Finnish and Paul’s learning type design. We’re delighted by these unique Finnish cheatsheets they designed using Paul’s work-in-progress font Lilliput.

#typedesign #finnish #typography #languagelearning #liliput

One of our favorite examples is a dataset of about 60k OkCupid profiles from the Bay Area in the early 2010s. It’s extremely fun to filter by column and try to find your “soulmate” (or “anti-soulmate”). You can always clear filters, or use undo/redo to flip between recent views.

We’ve also made it easy to filter within a single column if a global search feels too broad.

For instance, in this UFO sightings dataset, you might want to check how many sightings happened on July 4th—especially the ones described as “fireballs.”

To do this, just open the Find tool (top right) and filter the “datetime_time” column with “7/4” to see every sighting that happened on the Fourth of July.

Rowboat makes it easy to explore data by filtering down to different subsets.

In this UFO sightings dataset (rowboat.net/f/uzu782mq), ppen the Find tool and filter the “datetime_time” column with “7/4” to see how many sightings happened on July 4th.

Explore the coordinates of major world cities and instantly see the bright hotspots of densely populated areas.

Locate regions of the world most likely to be impacted by volcanic activity.

Get quick insights into global trade by plotting shipping routes of 500+ commercial vessels.

We recently made a round of visual updates to Rowboat to make it even easier to spot geographic regions where data is more highly concentrated.

To get more out of your own geographic data, head to www.rowboat.net

You can install the Chrome browser extension here: chromewebstore.google.com/detail/open-....

For those who don’t use Chrome — Firefox and Safari extensions should be arriving in the coming weeks!

We updated Rowboat’s Chrome extension to open HTML tables and links to .csv, .tsv, and .xls spreadsheets in your browser with a simple right click.

Just locate the dataset you want to examine, right click, and select “Open Table in Rowboat” to start exploring.

Chase, Libby, and Mark posing for a selfie on the Longfellow Bridge near the end of their run into the office.

In our latest blog post, Chase gives us a lesson in wet-bulb temperature calculations, conversing with coworkers while running, and the perks of opting out of the MBTA for your morning commute.

You can read more here: www.fathom.info/notebook/250...

A few weeks ago, we survived another "Fathom Song Guessing Game" — my favorite day of the year when we all get to know each other a bit better via our musical selections.

This year's theme was UNLEASH THE BEAST.

We have since managed to re-leash our beasts, and the office is back in order.

📸 Rowboat's header snapshot feature makes it easy to discover insights and instantly share your findings. When you spot something interesting, you’re just a click away from getting it in front of your team or shared online!

Check out the datasets on rowboat.xyz/!

When your dataset contains columns with lists or arrays instead of single values, the Set Analysis header in Rowboat breaks these entries apart so you can analyze each term individually.

Explore this BoardGameGeek dataset: rowboat.xyz/f/mczim00b

We recently dove into papal history, tracking the length of every papacy from 30 AD to 2013.

From the 33-day flash of John Paul I in 1978 to the 31-year epic of Pius IX in the 1800s, we can get a closer look at three centuries of papal reigns with our new ranges chart.

If your data contains values that can be linked — start and end, or minimum and maximum, just link them and explore the ranges!

We recently dove into papal history, tracking the length of every papacy from 30 AD to 2013.

If your data contains paired values — start and end, or minimum and maximum, just link them and explore the ranges!

Explore the pope dataset with Rowboat 🚣 : rowboat.xyz/f/wvjko69a

We are so excited to welcome Karlie as the latest addition to our team!

Karlie is an interdisciplinary designer and developer with an affinity for textile-oriented projects. Check out some of Karlie's incredible work here!

Thanks, Moritz! Let us know if you have any questions.

I really like Rowboat for introducing students to CSVs, and I’m excited about this new set analysis feature. Lists of items in one column is a really common problem for students to deal with.

Thanks, Miriam! We're always excited to hear about Rowboat being useful in the classroom. Please do reach out if you or your students have any questions.

From this 2010s OKCupid dataset, users shared both their horoscope sign and how much they cared about astrology. Spoiler: Scorpios and Virgos don’t quite see eye to eye.

From this 2010s OKCupid dataset, users shared both their horoscope sign and how much they cared about astrology. Spoiler: Scorpios and Virgos don’t quite see eye to eye.

If one of your columns is numeric, use Stacked Histogram instead. Looking at orientation across age groups, we see bisexual orientation was reported more frequently among younger age brackets than older ones.

If one of your columns is numeric, use Stacked Histogram instead. Looking at orientation across age groups, we see bisexual orientation was reported more frequently among younger age brackets than older ones.

Last September, we launched Rowboat — a tool for getting a quick, meaningful first look at your data. Today, we’re excited to share some new features to help you explore your data visually and answer even more questions. Dive in! 🌊

Explore the OKCupid dataset: rowboat.xyz/f/oxr6zumn