ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the key topics and terms as well as the main approaches to information processing that have been developed in the light of the expanded notion of text. It focuses on schema concepts, the concrete form and the abstract model that is connected to it. The chapter discusses the social semiotic approach has been most influential within linguistic research on visual communication and multimodality, the latter being a concept coined by social semiotics, and has inspired research. It provides a survey of major perspectives, approaches, traditions, and interests that characterize current research on the macrotypographic schematizing of information. Schematizing denotes the process of giving something a specific, systematic, shape or form. Schematizing information, draws on schema concepts, the concrete form and the abstract model that is connected to it. The macrotypographic composition, or 'layout,' of text has been recognized as a particularly important part of the information schematizing process.
