"This book explores the nature of one of the most ancient tools for nonverbal communication: drawings. Drawings require minimal apparatus: a planar surface and a pointed hard object to make marks on it. They are naturally adaptable enough to meet an incredibly wide range of communication needs. But how exactly do they do their job so well?".

"Avoiding the kinds of aesthetic rankings of different graphic domains so often made by art historians and critics, Manfredo Massironi considers an extensive and representative sample of graphic applications with an open mind. He finds a deep mutuality between the material components of images and the activation of the perceptual and cognitive processes that create and decipher them.".

"Drawings are not simply tools for communication but important instruments for investigating reality and its structure. Richly illustrated, the book includes a series of graphic exercises that enable readers to get a sense of their own perceptual and cognitive activity when inspecting images. Massironi's path-breaking taxonomy of graphic productions will illuminate all the processes involved in producing and understanding graphic images for a wide audience.

In fields ranging from perceptual and cognitive psychology through human factors and graphic design to architecture and art history."--BOOK JACKET.