Welcome to the most comprehensive collection of resources on visual perspective available today. Here, you will find links to thousands of books, papers, films, and other sources, along with a wide range of principles, theories, methods, and systems that have shaped the study of perspective throughout history.
Our goal is to create a complete catalogue of all branches and forms of perspective. To help navigate the complexity of this subject, we are developing a new classification framework that organises the field into a coherent structure. Although this work is still in progress, our research has already identified approximately 1,200 distinct forms of visual, optical, and technical perspective.
Some of the definitions used here may differ from those found in existing literature. In certain cases, it has been necessary to depart from established terminology in order to develop a more comprehensive and internally consistent ontology. We recognise, however, that the field of visual perspective continues to evolve, and our classifications and definitions should therefore be regarded as provisional. As research advances and new insights emerge, the framework presented here will continue to be refined and expanded.
Whether you are a researcher, artist, scientist, technologist, visual designer, historian, or simply a curious reader, these resources offer a gateway to the remarkable diversity and complexity of visual perspective.
Perspective Research Centre
The Perspective Research Centre (PRC) is a research and educational centre focused on perspective and the visual dimensions of art, science, and technology. We began studying perspective over four decades ago, and herein you will find a detailed record of our intellectual journey and related discoveries.
We begin by asking: What is perspective? A simple answer is that perspective deals with natural perspective, including visual perspective—how we see things—and artificial perspective, or how we represent that concept in diagrams, drawings, pictures, photographs, films, television, computers, and other media.
Given such a straightforward definition, one might assume there is little to learn and label perspective as a standard visual method involving well-known principles. However, nothing could be further from the truth. It turns out that many different kinds of perspectives exist, each with complex characteristics, often presented with unexplained “facts” that confuse, alongside perplexing mysteries and exciting possibilities. Our task is to help you learn about and explore the kaleidoscopic, sometimes highly technical and wide-ranging topic of perspective—and to unlock new abilities and solutions along the way.
Herein, you will find a vast archive of information on perspective, including a subject Library, Encyclopedia, Bibliography, and Dictionary, as well as links to countless publications on this seminal topic. We have spent over four decades gathering, indexing, and organising this unique knowledge bank to provide easy access to everything known about perspective.
We hope you find these resources informative, helpful, and enjoyable.
Status of Perspective
Perspective is a vast, mysterious, and still only partially understood domain, filled with unexpected forms and surprising outcomes. Rather than a simple topic, perspective is best understood as a discipline—one that spans art, science, and technology, and continues to reveal new and often overlooked facets. This raises a natural question: what, then, is the true status of this field?
In search of an answer, we begin by defining top-level types and subtypes, while also listing applications for each.
Visual / Optical / Technical Perspective
Visual perspective (first type or non-retinal) is the formation of a visual image—or a representational pattern—of a visible state of affairs present in a spatial reality. Whereby sub-type optical/technical perspective uses light or electromagnetic radiation to establish a visual standard of truth.
A familiar form of optical or graphical perspective is linear, Renaissance, or scientific perspective, which many of us learned in school. It asks how to draw a picture on a plane surface that represents a three-dimensional object or scene in such a way that the various portions of the picture, in their mutual relations, present the same aspect as the corresponding visible parts (or outlines) of the object or scene. In short, linear perspective rationalises vision by prescribing, segmenting, ordering, indexing, and gauging physical space.
In reality, there are countless ways to view, depict, and measure spatial reality. Accordingly, there are different classes of perspective, including:
- Visual perspective (second type, or retinal), for observing;
- Instrument perspective, for surveying, recording, and displaying;
- Simulated and New Media perspectives, for constructing and modelling spatial objects or scenes, and more.
Perspective is a multi-faceted subject that encompasses far more visual phenomena than commonly realised. It is also a key to understanding major categories of art, science, and technology. Related topics include space, time, optics, the human eye and vision, colour, drawing and geometry, painting, reality, illusion, imagination, and representation.
Perspective has been central to key developments across numerous fields, including photography, television, cinema, cartography, astronomy, topology, photogrammetry, scenography, archaeology, architecture, and landscape design. Recent developments also rely heavily on perspective, such as Geographical Information Systems (GIS), Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Computer Graphics (CG), Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI), Computer Vision (CV), Artificial Intelligence (AI), virtual production, medical imaging, robotics, stereography, panoramas, holograms, and space exploration.
In sum, perspective lies at the epicentre of human progress and is pivotal to everything we will achieve in the future. Q.E.D.
Our Mission
We seek a unification of perspective knowledge across all subject disciplines.
A fundamental goal is to gather perspective theories and methods as developed in both Western and non-Western cultures, and to foster rational insight into the various classes, categories, and forms of perspective, along with their technical systems, practical applications, and associated visual media. By collecting, linking, and developing perspective knowledge, we aim to support education and technological advancement across a broad range of artistic, scientific, technological, and cultural fields.
All types of perspective are studied, falling under natural, artificial, and synthetic classes. This leads to detailed analysis of visual, graphical, mathematical/geometrical, linear, curvilinear, cylindrical, spherical, aspective, negative (reverse/inverse/inverted/diverging), proto/pseudo, axial, bird’s-eye, parallel, modular, glide, accelerated, anamorphic, and other perspectives, as well as various kinds of simulated, illusory, augmented, or virtual perspectives and mixed real/digital forms.
But why study perspective today? Surely it is a well-understood, essentially historical topic, primarily of interest to artists, designers, and architects. Indeed, perspective has long been, and continues to be, eminently useful as a graphical technique for depicting, modelling, and enhancing spatial realism. However, perspective is also a scientific discipline closely linked with modern innovations, including Computer-Aided Design (CAD), computational photography, 2-D/3-D cinema, Special Effects (SFX), Virtual/Augmented/Mixed Reality (VR/AR/MR), computer games, and digital filmmaking.
Perspective drives artistic, scientific, and technical progress to a remarkable degree. Nonetheless, it likely holds countless other applications—types, methods, and facets—that have yet to be discovered. Unfortunately, even the known forms of perspective are mired in complexity, and a complete cataloguing of all classes and branches has not yet been performed.
We aim to unify all perspective knowledge into a single framework: Perspective Category Theory (PCT). This initiative heralds the emergence of perspective science as a primary branch of knowledge—with established theory and, above all, unified laws.
Origins
The Perspective Research Centre (PRC) has a rich 40-year history.
PRC developed from two predecessor organisations: the Perspective Unit at the University of Toronto and the Maastricht McLuhan Institute (MMI). From these organisations, we have inherited an important scientific legacy, including the Library, Bibliography, and Encyclopedia of Perspective.
For over 30 years, Kim Veltman (1948–2020) was widely regarded as the world’s foremost expert on perspective and the founder and director of these organisations. Following his passing in April 2020, PRC maintains the official collection of Professor Veltman’s lifetime works in the Kim Veltman Archive. This archive includes unpublished articles, letters, books, treatises, and other manuscripts. Together, it comprises approximately 2.9 million words and 10,000 pages across more than 400 publications on perspective and related topics—making Kim one of the most prolific researchers in this field.
Today, our work continues as we strive to create a single, unified access point to all knowledge on perspective.
Figure 1: Linear / visual / anamorphic perspective drawings (16th – 19th c.)
PRC curates several scientific archives on perspective, including the complete works of past collaborators: Professor Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980), Professor Sir Ernst Gombrich (1909–2001), Professor Luigi Vagnetti (1915–1980), Professor B.A.R. Carter (1909–2006), who was Professor of Perspective at the Royal Academy, Professor Kenneth Keele (1909–1987), who served as President of the Royal Society of Medicine, and Professor A.I. Sabra (1924–2013), a world-leading expert on the history of optics and science in medieval Islam.
Founder Kim Veltman also worked closely with human vision experts, including Professor C.B. Schmitt (1933–1986), Professor A.C. Crombie (1915–1996), and R.A. Weale (1922– ), and we hold detailed records of these collaborations.
This provides sufficient introductory information on the history of the Perspective Research Centre, as the visitor or reader is likely more interested in the history of our primary subject matter: perspective itself.
The Epic Story of Perspective
Renaissance, linear, or so-called one-point perspective is a geometrical construction method thought to have been devised around 1415 by the Italian Renaissance architect Filippo Brunelleschi and later documented in Della Pittura (1435) by the architect Leon Battista Alberti. The emergence of this form of linear perspective was an epochal moment in the Western artistic and scientific tradition(s).
A little over 2,000 years ago, the ancient Greeks developed the first systematic attempts at realistic depictions of depth on flat two-dimensional surfaces, employing key perspectival phenomena. These include the apparent diminution of size with distance (size–distance relationships), the apparent diminution of form (loss of outline detail with distance), the apparent degradation of form (shape distortion with viewing angle), aspect foreshortening (apparent contraction of size depending on viewing direction), and vanishing points, among others. However, they are generally not considered to have developed or systematised the principles of linear perspective—namely, the idea that objects are viewed from a single fixed point and that sets of orthogonal (parallel) lines converge toward a single primary vanishing point.
The roots of linear perspective also draw on developments in the Near East, including Egypt and West Asian regions spanning the Arabian Peninsula and northeast Africa, as well as within the Byzantine and Ottoman spheres. In this context, regions such as Iraq, Yemen, and Jordan are sometimes discussed in relation to early optical and representational practices. By contrast, far less is known or established regarding the historical development of graphical or linear perspective in regions such as India, China, and Japan.
Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic depictions from approximately 3,100 years ago are typically based on flattened image compositions that do not account for recession, diminution of size, or degradation of form. Some rare ancient Egyptian and Mesoamerican paintings do exhibit foreshortening, but these examples are few and are often attributed to accident, local convention, or individual artistic technique rather than systematic application.
In contrast to Egyptian, Byzantine, and Indian art traditions, early Chinese and Japanese art did employ certain perspectival elements—such as the recession of apparent size—though generally without systematic use of vanishing points or consistent aspect foreshortening as seen in classical Greek-influenced Western systems. Japanese depictions of expansive scenes often employ oblique parallel projection. In addition, Japanese artworks frequently make use of aerial perspective to represent distance through colour, atmospheric effects, and contrast.
Japanese art in particular often took the form of scrolls, which unfold time and space to construct narrative sequences, producing a continuous, non-centralised spatial experience. The single viewpoint and central vanishing point of linear perspective are absent; as a result, the spatial construction is not unified in a scientific sense and is not intended to represent a single instantaneous viewpoint.
While perspective has foundations deeply rooted in the past, it remains a distinctly modern subject. Nevertheless, earlier principles, theories, and methods of perspective remain highly relevant to contemporary visual technologies. Indeed, the aspiring perspectivist has much to gain from a close study of the history of perspective.
Perspective Today
Perspective is by no means an old, abandoned, or obsolete subject. On the contrary, today we see more types/forms, methods, systems and applications of perspective than ever before.
Perspective instruments—such as telescopes, microscopes, cameras, and displays on television, computer, and mobile screens—take perspectival methods to unprecedented levels of usefulness. Moreover, the diverse techniques of mathematical perspective have been applied to a vast range of problems far beyond the aesthetic representation or imaging of spatial objects and scenes. For example, perspective techniques underpin spatial problem-solving in fields such as astronomy, space exploration, surveying, geographic information systems (GIS), cartography, navigation, photogrammetry, weather monitoring, medical imaging (MI), computer-aided design (CAD), computer and robotic vision, special effects (SFX), virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR), global positioning systems (GPS), and even computer-chip manufacturing.
Today, the primary methods and systems of perspective have been dramatically improved in power, scope, accuracy, and the sheer number of practical applications. Perspective remains the preeminent way for humans to image, view, match, represent, and create illusions of—or immersions into—a universe of visual complexity. By utilising advanced perspective methods, systems, and instruments, we vastly expand the field, range, and depth of human vision.
Given the unprecedented achievements in the history of perspective, who can say what incredible heights it may enable humanity to reach? Indeed, new perspective techniques are now being applied to cutting-edge visual problems in fields such as drone displays and photogrammetry, robotics, medical visualisation, virtual film production, object recognition and tracking, autonomous vehicle navigation, and novel astronomical and microscopic imaging systems. Perspective phenomena are even observed in artificial intelligence-generated or simulated images and videos, where new forms of visual representation continue to emerge.
Figure 2: Modern perspective methods/systems (clck to expand)
The various types, principles, phenomena, methods, systems, and instruments of visual, optical, and technical perspective underpin all such innovations. As a result, today’s perspectival images are more detailed, colourful, expansive, and realistic than ever before. Moreover, perspective views—both still and moving—are far more numerous, accessible, and impactful than at any previous point in history.
It is clear, then, that the diverse principles, methods, systems, and applications of perspective have been, and continue to be, indispensable to the development of human civilisation as we know it today.
Library, Bibliography, and Encyclopedia
The PRC curates an extensive collection of unique and world-leading materials on perspective and related subjects.
Established over 50 years, our Library of Perspective consists of 5,000 physical volumes (catalogued), 10,000 digital papers/books (uncatalogued), hundreds of articles/theses/treatises, and 33,000 digital images. A meticulously assembled Library Catalogue [60 MB pdf] has been produced, detailing the Library of Perspective, whereby modern scholars can browse the contents and seek out interesting works for themselves.
Today, the Library of Perspective is unsurpassed in the private field, and in the future, we shall continue collecting new materials on perspective. The library aims to collect all specialised literature in the field(s) of perspective, projection methods, spatial concepts, imaging and vision.
PRC maintains the standard world Bibliography of Perspective, initially developed by Professor Luigi Vagnetti and later progressed by Professor Kim Veltman—who together spent 90 years compiling a list of 15,000 perspective titles from throughout time. You can access the bibliography here: Bibliography of Perspective: Volume 6: Antiquity-1899 [4 MB pdf], Bibliography of Perspective: Volume 7: 1900-2020 [6 MB pdf]. In 2020, PRC published the bibliography as part of the Encyclopedia of Perspective (2,500 pages), the definitive work on its subject matter that is a wonder to behold.
Leonardo da Vinci
Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci was an early pioneer of perspectival techniques, employing a profoundly visual approach in his highly inventive studies of the natural and built worlds.
Leonardo developed a comprehensive theory of perspective that includes definitions, principles, and explanations that are strikingly modern in form. He likely possessed a deeper understanding of optics, vision, and perspective than most contemporary artists and scientists. This is not an exaggeration: Kim Veltman devoted over twenty years to studying Leonardo’s optical research, writings, and drawings on perspective, as preserved in Leonardo’s notebooks, and produced several thousand pages of analysis on this subject alone.
Leonardo’s notebooks, comprising approximately 6,500 pages, contain around 100,000 sketches, diagrams, and drawings. Even today, we can learn much from his explicit reflections on the supremacy of visual imagery over verbal description. Accordingly, we are engaged in a comprehensive study of Leonardo’s optical, perspectival, and spatial methods, aiming to better understand his working techniques and to explain why visual representation was so central to his thought.
As noted, Kim Veltman was a leading scholar of Leonardo da Vinci, and we intend to publish his complete body of work on Leonardo in digital form. We are also developing the Encyclopedia of Leonardo da Vinci, which brings together Veltman’s writings on the polymath. This multi-volume work explores Leonardo’s scientific methodology, optical studies, and techniques of perspectival visualisation.
Monograph on Perspective
In a strange quirk of fate, no book exists on the theoretical foundations of perspective (broadest sense); specifically to define, analyse, and unify all of the principles, types/forms, methods, instruments, and applications of visual/optical perspective. Henceforth, we are gathering everything known on this subject into a comprehensive monograph entitled The Art and Science of Perspective.
These books will be of interest to ‘vision-based’ professionals, including artists, photographers, filmmakers, cinematographers, architects, lighting designers, CAD engineers, VR/AR/MR plus digital metaverse content creators, 3-D/CGI/AI modellers, SFX/VFX creators, game designers, live/virtual/hybrid film production specialists.
In this book series, we wish to spark interest in visual and optical perspective, advance the subject by popularising it, and showcase the powers and capacities of related visual, imaging, and spatial concepts.
The monograph has six planned volumes:
- Past, Present, and Future of Visual and Optical Perspective
- Dictionary of Perspective
- Natural and Visual Perspective
- Graphical and Mathematical Perspective
- Simulated Perspective and Illusion
- Instrument and New Media Perspective
The Past, Present and Future of Visual and Optical Perspective is an introduction to the Art and Science of Perspective book series; providing a sample of the diverse range of topics to be analysed in greater detail in subsequent volumes.
The first edition of Volume 1 of the Art and Science of Perspective is available as a paperback on Amazon: Past, Present and Future of Visual and Optical Perspective.
Our Dictionary of Perspective, is a standard lexicon of all terms on perspective, projection methods, vision, and spatial concepts. Hopefully, it becomes an instant classic and a cornerstone of knowledge for all ‘perspectivists’: with definitions of 4,000 terms and 1,200 types/forms of perspective, complete with synonyms, cross-referencing, etc, that enhances understanding of the definitions.
The first edition of Volume 2 of the Art and Science of Perspective is available as a paperback on Amazon: Dictionary of Perspective.
Research and Education
Perspective is a rapidly developing field, with many modern applications grounded in ongoing research and development. Yet much remains unknown, and numerous questions remain unanswered. Accordingly, research continues across multiple disciplines into the principles, theories, types, forms, facets, phenomena, functions, systems, instruments, and applications of visual, optical, and technical perspective.
A significant challenge for students and scholars of technical perspective is that the vast majority of historical texts and treatises remain largely inaccessible, often written in ancient Latin, Greek, Arabic, Indian, or Chinese languages. Many modern perspective works are similarly restricted by language, existing only in Italian, French, Spanish, German, or other national languages. If perspective is ever to establish itself as a stand-alone subject discipline, it is essential to improve the accessibility of these texts. At PRC, we have undertaken the enormous task of translating key historical and modern works into English as a starting point for this unification.
Perspective is such a vast, integral, and profoundly influential topic that it deserves to be taught as a distinct subject in schools, colleges, and universities. It epitomises interdisciplinary or cross-disciplinary study, with countless sources, links, and fundamental connections that penetrate the core of major phenomena in the arts, sciences, and technology. At PRC, we aim to address this evident knowledge gap through Perspective Category Theory, alongside educational papers, books, images, courses, lectures, vlogs, and documentary films.
In sum, we are committed to educating new generations about the rich history of perspective and the remarkable possibilities this pivotal subject offers for the future.
Challenge of the Future
Perspective is an old subject with an exciting future. Today, the field of perspective is positively brimming with new theories, methods, inventions, and vital application areas, and it continues to evolve rapidly.
Technological advances enabled by, or related to, perspective are numerous and remarkable. The various principles and methods of perspective underpin many innovations, either explicitly in the design of optical instruments and visual operating procedures, or implicitly in the ways images are processed, stored, networked, shared, viewed, and interpreted across a wide range of visual, optical, and digital systems.
Perspective transforms our understanding of space, time, vision, and representation. It is central to physical and cognitive orientation, and serves as a tool for conceptual navigation, recording, and organising knowledge. Perspective also has foundational links to nearly every other discipline across the arts, sciences, and technology. Yet its possibilities are still being explored. It is therefore no surprise that perspective—once associated with the idea of an open horizon—remains itself an open field.
At PRC, we explore the past, present, and future of perspective. A key challenge is to apply both historical and contemporary forms of perspective in meaningful ways, enabling us to visualise, model, and contribute to a more humane world. In any case, the story of perspective has only just begun; it will continue to shape the human future in ways that are profound and, in many respects, still difficult to imagine.
Clearly, there is much to be done in the field of perspective. Wish us luck.
-- < CONFERENCES, SYMPOSIA AND WORKSHOPS > --
Events organised by the International associations ALAIPO: Asociación Latina Interacción Persona-Ordenador–Latin Association of HCI (www.alaipo.com) and AINCI: Asociación Internacional de la Comunicación Interactiva –International Association of Interactive Communication (www.ainci.com).
-- < Conferences in 2026 > --
9th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, High Education, Augmented Reality and Technologies ( HCIHEART 2025 ), Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg :: July, 27 – 29th, 2026.
11th International Conference on Horizons for Information Architecture, Security and Cloud Intelligent Technology ( HIASCIT 2026 ), Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg :: July, 29 – 31th, 2026.
1st International Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Emotions, Emphatics, Ethics and Illegal Algorithms ( AIEEEIA 2026 ). Venice, Italy :: August, 27 – 29th, 2026 AIEEEIA 2026.
15th International Workshop on Human-Computer Interaction, Tourism and Cultural Heritage (HCITOCH 2026 ), Peschiera del Garda, Italy :: 2 - 4 September 2026.
8th International Conference on Quantum Information Technologies Applied to Nature and Society (QUITANS 2026), Peschiera del Garda, Italy :: 7 - 9 September 2026.
10th International Conference on Research and Development in Imaging, Nanotechnology, Industrial Design and Robotics (RDINIDR 2026). Madrid, Spain :: October, 13 – 15th, 2026.
2nd International Conference on Gardunia Factor in Informatics Education and Learning. Disinformation (GARFIIELD 2026). Madrid, Spain :: October, 15 – 17th, 2026.
15th International Conference on Advances in New Technologies, Interactive Interfaces and Communicability (ADNTIIC 2026). Montevideo, Uruguay :: 17 – 19 November, 2026.
8th International Conference on Evolution of the Sciences, Informatics, Human Integration and Scientific Education (ESIHISE 2026). Montevideo, Uruguay :: 19 – 21 November, 2026.
13th Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, Telecommunications, Informatics and Scientific Information (HCITISI – IPCTIIC 2026). Córdoba, Argentina :: 26 – 28 November, 2026.
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Perspective Research Centre
www.perspectiveresearchcentre.com
-- < LATEST NEWS > --
Thank you for visiting the PRC website, which has 200 pages of information on visual/optical/technical perspective.
Please forgive any mistakes that creep into a project of this size and scope. Feel free to inform us of errors, falsehoods, etc., and/or suggest ways to improve the ideas presented.
Thank you, dear reader, for your kind patience.
And that's about it for now.
Alan Radley
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Dr Alan Radley FRSA | Scientific Director
alansradley@gmail.com
Perspective Research Centre
www.perspectiveresearchcentre.com
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