ABSTRACT
Drawings are an efficient product for communicating information, because their creators and their viewers share the same mechanisms for primary visual processing. Because of the action of these mechanisms, different graphic elements can be perceived and interpreted as objects, edges, or textures, as I have shown in the previous chapters. The perception of graphic elements does have some specific features, however. These differentiate the perception of graphics from ordinary perception. When I observe the pen I hold in my hand, the tree outside my window, or any other object, I am simply aware of seeing a pen, a tree, and so forth. But when I see ink marks on paper, I can be aware that they are ink marks while at the same time seeing them as representing an object. The specificity of graphic communication exists in this fundamental honesty. Although the world depicted is fictional, the creator of the drawing is not trying to deceive the viewer, nor does the viewer feel deceived.
