Editing The Dark Side of the Moon (section)

== Packaging ==
[[File:Light dispersion of a mercury-vapor lamp with a flint glass prism IPNr°0125.jpg|thumb|upright|left|The album's artwork depicts light [[Refraction|refracting]] from a triangular [[dispersive prism]].]]
{{Quote box |quoted=true |bgcolor=|salign=center|quote=It felt like the whole band were working together. It was a creative time. We were all very open.|source=– Richard Wright<ref>{{Harvnb|Harris|2006|p=3}}</ref>|align=right|width=25em}}
The album was originally released in a [[gatefold]] LP sleeve designed by [[Hipgnosis]] and [[George Hardie (artist)|George Hardie]]. Hipgnosis had designed several of the band's previous albums, with controversial results; EMI had reacted with confusion when faced with the cover designs for ''[[Atom Heart Mother]]'' and ''[[Obscured by Clouds]]'', as they had expected to see traditional designs which included lettering and words. Designers [[Storm Thorgerson]] and [[Aubrey Powell (designer)|Aubrey Powell]] were able to ignore such criticism, as they were employed by the band. For ''The Dark Side of the Moon'', Wright suggested something "smarter, neater{{Snd}} more classy",<ref>{{Harvnb|Harris|2006|p=143}}</ref> and simple, "like the artwork of a Black Magic chocolate box".<ref name=mojo />

The design was inspired by a photograph of a prism with a beam of white light projected through it and emerging in the colours of the [[visible spectrum]] that Thorgerson had found in a 1963 physics textbook,<ref name=mojo /> as well as by an illustration by [[Alex Steinweiss]], the inventor of album cover art, for the [[New York Philharmonic]]'s 1942 performance of [[Ludwig van Beethoven]]'s [[Emperor Concerto]].<ref name="Hebblethwaite 2018">{{cite web |last1=Hebblethwaite |first1=Phil |title=Who are the designers behind some of music's most striking album covers? |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/65c2f244-e2e9-408f-a2e7-5e070de3d287 |website=BBC |access-date=6 March 2022 |ref=Hebblethwaite 2018 |date=23 April 2018 |archive-date=29 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211229094025/https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/65c2f244-e2e9-408f-a2e7-5e070de3d287 |url-status=live }}</ref> The artwork was created by an associate of Hipgnosis, George Hardie.<ref name=mojo /> Hipgnosis offered a choice of seven designs for the sleeve, but all four members of the band agreed that the prism was the best. "There were no arguments," said Roger Waters. "We all pointed to the prism and said 'That's the one'."<ref name=mojo />

The design depicts a glass [[Prism (optics)|prism]] dispersing white light into colours and represents three elements: the band's stage lighting, the album lyrics, and Wright's request for a "simple and bold" design.<ref name="makingof" /> At Waters' suggestion, the spectrum of light continues through to the gatefold.<ref>{{Harvnb|Schaffner|1991|pp=165–166}}</ref> Added shortly afterwards, the gatefold design also includes a visual representation of the heartbeat sound used throughout the album, and the back of the album cover contains Thorgerson's suggestion of another prism recombining the spectrum of light, to make possible interesting layouts of the sleeve in record shops.<ref name="Harrispp141147">{{Harvnb|Harris|2006|pp=141–147}}</ref> The light band emanating from the prism on the album cover has six colours, missing [[indigo]], compared with the usual division of the visible spectrum into red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.  Inside the sleeve were two posters and two pyramid-themed stickers. One poster bore pictures of the band in concert, overlaid with scattered letters to form PINK FLOYD, and the other an [[infrared photograph]] of the [[Great Pyramids of Giza]], created by Powell and Thorgerson.<ref name="Harrispp141147" />

The band were so confident of the quality of Waters' lyrics that, for the first time, they printed them on the album's sleeve.<ref name="Masonp167" />