The Many Dimensions of Perspective

Perspective Categories
A principal source or mode of a perspective process.
Perspective Visual Perspective (Type 1) Optical Perspective Technical Perspective
Natural
Perspective
Visual
Perspective
(Type 2 /
Retinal)
Graphical
Perspective
Mathematical
Perspective
Instrument
Perspective
Simulated
Perspective
New Media
Perspective
Analytical level
← Home Analytical levels show how a concept is classified within the perspective system. Select a concept to open.

The Perspective Research Centre (PRC) is a world-leading institute for the study of perspective. Built on more than 40 years of research, writing and teaching across art, science and technology, the PRC brings an extensive body of perspective knowledge together within a systematic framework based on Perspective Category Theory.

The interactive Perspective Navigation Maps above provide direct visual routes through this interconnected knowledge.

Open-Access Digital Materials

A Familiar Subject, Studied as a Whole

Perspective is not a newly invented subject. Its principles, processes and phenomena have been studied for centuries across art, geometry, optics, vision, photography, architecture and imaging science.

The PRC brings this dispersed knowledge together, developing a systematic terminology, classification and theoretical framework for perspective as a whole. It synthesises, organises and extends a historically fragmented field, while presenting new terminology and concepts as extensions of established knowledge rather than replacements for existing disciplines.

Learn, Search & Research Perspective

Explore the searchable Abridged Dictionary of Perspective, an 85,000-word A–Z abridgement of the full 350,000-word Dictionary of Perspective, covering 1,226 perspective types and forms while also serving as a taxonomy, concise encyclopaedia and theoretical map.

Want to learn what perspective is or what perspective means? You are in the right place. Explore a clear definition of perspective, the many types of perspective, new concepts in perspective, 3D space and perspective theory. 

For structured exploration, use the Perspective Theory & Concepts Index, Applications of Perspective Index, and People in the History of Perspective Index, or search more than 400 PRC pages directly.

The PRC has assembled a vast body of historical and original material on perspective, much of it unavailable anywhere else. Even this extensive website represents only a portion of the PRC’s wider research; further definitions, classifications and new ideas are being published in the Art and Science of Perspective book series.

Start Here

Choose a starting point based on your interests and experience.

Perspective Theory

Explore the principal frameworks, forms, geometry and phenomena of perspective.

Perspective Images & Views

Browse visual examples and image collections across the major forms of perspective, from linear and parallel perspective to optical, natural, curvilinear, stereoscopic, immersive and other forms.

Go to the Perspective Images & Views Index →

Finding Perspective Confusing?

Errors, misconceptions and false assumptions remain widespread in textbooks, teaching and established accounts. These sections examine some of the most common problems.

Size and Scope of the Project

Perspective encompasses both natural perspective—how spatial reality appears—and artificial perspective—how it is represented through drawings, photographs, films, diagrams and digital media.

The Perspective Topics A–Z Master Index → (4.5 MB PDF) contains 2,516 topics drawn from approximately 4,000 terms and around 1,200 perspective types and forms.

Applications of perspective organised by discipline and
by five principal goals: View, Match, Represent, Illusion and Immersion.

Describing, Mapping and Clarifying Perspective

Perspective remains only partially documented and lacks a comprehensive systematic description. Its principles, types, forms, phenomena, applications, techniques and methods are dispersed across numerous disciplines, while new technological forms continue to emerge and fundamental theoretical questions remain unresolved. Its terminology is particularly problematic, frequently giving one concept several names—or one name to different, even opposing, ideas.

The task is therefore not simply to clarify perspective, but to describe and map the field as a whole; organise and connect its parts; provide clear routes through this body of knowledge; document its techniques, methods and applications; resolve errors and misconceptions; and develop a more integrated theory linking spatial reality, visual experience and representation.

Perspective Category Theory

Perspective Category Theory (PCT) is an integrated theory of projection, vision, perception and representation, examining them as interconnected processes through which spatial reality is viewed, imaged, experienced, transformed and represented.

PCT analyses these relationships through seven levels—Category, Class, Type, Form, Phenomenon, Function and Product—providing a conceptual structure for examining established principles, unresolved problems and new perspective phenomena together.

A conceptual diagram showing the seven analytical levels through which a perspective system or image may be analysed: Category, Class, Type, Form, Phenomenon, Function and Product.

Library, Bibliography and Archives 

The PRC maintains a specialist Library of Perspective, extensive bibliography and image archive, together with the Kim Veltman Archive of 400 publications on perspective, visual knowledge, Leonardo da Vinci, media theory and the history of science.

Teaching Perspective 

The PRC examines not only how perspective is taught, but which underlying geometrical principles are actually explained. Recent research comparing 87 teaching sources reveals significant differences between the teaching of familiar procedures and the underlying geometrical principles on which they depend.

Explore Perspective Teaching Research →
View the 87-Source Teaching Audit →