This second edition of the landmark textbook Reading Imagesbuilds on its reputation as the first systematic and comprehensive account of the grammar of visual design. Drawing on an enormous range of examples from children's drawings to textbook illustrations, photo-journalism to fine art, as well as three-dimensional forms such as sculpture and toys, the authors examine the ways in which images communicate meaning. Features of this fully updated second edition include: new material on moving images and on colour a discussion of how images and their uses have changed through time websites and web-based images ideas on the future of visual communication. Reading Imagesfocuses on the structures or 'grammar' of visual design “ colour, perspective, framing and composition “ provides the reader with an invaluable 'tool-kit' for reading images and makes it a must for anyone interested in communication, the media and the arts.

Gunther Kress is Professor of English at the Institute of Education, University of London Theo van Leeuwen is currently Dean at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Technology, Sydney