Perspective Research Centre

The Perspective Research Centre (PRC) unifies knowledge of perspective across art, optics, geometry, architecture, photography, film, computer graphics, virtual reality and artificial intelligence within a single interdisciplinary resource.

For centuries, perspective has occupied a central place in human knowledge, yet its principles, terminology, types and phenomena remain scattered across disciplines, while important relationships remain poorly documented or incompletely understood. PRC brings this knowledge together by resolving conflicting terminology, correcting errors and misconceptions, and organising the field through its Perspective Category Theory, supported by the PRC research corpus exceeding seven million words and comprehensive subject indexes spanning related fields. Establishing perspective as a distinct field.

WHAT IS PERSPECTIVE?

Perspective extends far beyond the familiar method of linear perspective drawing. It concerns how objects, spaces, views and images are seen, formed, measured and represented using natural, graphical, mathematical, instrumental, simulated and digital means.

Its principles extend across art, optics, geometry, architecture, astronomy and surveying, and remain fundamental to photography, cinema, cartography, scientific imaging, computer graphics, visual perception, virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence and other technologies of vision. Perspective underpins art, science and technology.

PERSPECTIVE STUDIED AS A WHOLE

Perspective provides an intellectual prism through which to explore vision, projection, perception and representation. Presented here is a comprehensive new theory of the entire field of visual and optical perspective, developed through more than 40 years of research. It introduces many new concepts while remaining grounded in established principles and known scientific theory. A unified framework for the whole field of perspective.

PRC’s Perspective Category Theory organises the field through systematic terminology, classification and navigation. It enables readers to consult individual resources, follow connected pathways or explore the subject in depth to uncover new relationships, meanings and solutions. Making perspective connected, navigable and discoverable.

Start Your Journey

Choose where to begin.

🧭 New to PRC?

Read our quick orientation guide to learn how our corpus of 300+ articles is structured.

How to Use This Site →

📖 New to Perspective?

Start with the basic definitions, history and essential concepts of perspective.

Start with the Basics →

🎓 Research & Archives

Explore 15,000+ bibliographic titles, 1,200+ classified types and forms, specialist research resources and the Kim Veltman Archive.

Explore Research & Archives →

🔍 Common Errors & Misconceptions

Understand key historical and technical errors commonly found in teaching, textbooks and explanations of perspective.

View Common Errors & Misconceptions →

Universal Knowledge System

Digital Library →

SEARCH THE PRC DIGITAL LIBRARY’S FULL CONTENTS IN ONE STEP
— RESULTS IN SECONDS

The Universal Knowledge System (UKS) is not an ordinary library search system. Conventional library systems generally help users locate books and other items through catalogue records, titles, authors, subjects and metadata. UKS instead provides full-content Global Search, searching inside the actual text of the entire Digital Library in a single step. This form of searching is commonly known as Full-Text Search (FTS). Here it is especially powerful because it operates across a comprehensive, curated perspective library, including the approximately seven-million-word Kim Veltman Archive. A single search can therefore provide an unusually rich, focused and deep view of the particular perspective topic, concept or problem being investigated.

The contents of hundreds of books, papers, archives and other publications become directly searchable together, making material buried deep inside individual volumes visible, discoverable and immediately accessible. Search results appear in only a few seconds. When a publication is added to the Digital Library, it is indexed at the point of import, using a unique publication-indexing system that indexes hundreds of thousands of terms for rapid lookup. The result is a search that is both wide and deep—wide across the Library, and deep into the pages, passages and surrounding context of the source material itself.

Multi-Search also allows several search terms to be used simultaneously. Search results can then be multi-contextualised, allowing up to nine matched publications to be opened, arranged and examined systematically side by side. Instead of merely finding that a publication exists, UKS allows the researcher to move directly from a Global or Collection search into the relevant material inside the source, compare related passages rapidly and extensively using different search terms for each publication, trace related topics across multiple publications, and explore the Library as a connected body of searchable knowledge.

Flagship Projects

The principal research resources of the Perspective Research Centre.

Library of Perspective

The Library of Perspective is one of the PRC’s principal research resources. It exists in two complementary forms: a physical specialist library of approximately 5,000 books, assembled over many decades, and a growing Digital Library of Perspective delivered through the PRC Universal Knowledge System (UKS). The Digital Library currently contains more than 650 searchable publications, including 400+ publications from the Kim Veltman Archive, with further collections and publications being added. It provides searchable access to books, papers, articles and archive materials for direct reading, comparison and Multi-Context research.

About the Library of Perspective →Explore the Physical Library →Open the Digital Library →

Dictionary of Perspective

The first-ever Dictionary of Perspective offers a new understanding of what perspective is, how it works and why it matters across the visual arts, science and technology. With more than 4,000 entries, approximately 1,200 perspective types and forms and over 333,000 words, it is both an encyclopaedic reference and a theoretical map of perspective. The Dictionary is available to purchase as a printed edition, or to access online as a subscription-based, searchable Digital Edition.

Search the Digital Dictionary →About the Digital Edition →About the Printed Edition →

Bibliography of Perspective

Search a specialist bibliography of more than 15,000 titles spanning perspective in art, optics, geometry, architecture, imaging, science and technology, developed as a comprehensive research guide to the field. Built through some 80 years of bibliographic research and collaboration, it maps perspective literature across disciplines. The Bibliography is available as a printed book, a free PDF download and a searchable open-access Digital Bibliography database.

Search the Digital Bibliography →Access the Bibliography in Downloadable Format →

Featured Projects

Explore major specialist projects, archives and research resources.

Kim Veltman Archive

Explore the legacy archive of Professor Kim H. Veltman, including publications, research materials and interdisciplinary resources connecting perspective, media, culture and the history of knowledge. Includes SUMS and a digitally searchable collection of books and papers from the Kim Veltman Archive. The archive contains more than 400 publications, with the rights to the complete collection held by the Perspective Research Centre.

Explore in Downloadable Format →Explore as a Collection →About Kim Veltman →

Encyclopedia of Perspective

Explore Kim H. Veltman’s eight-volume, approximately three-million-word Encyclopedia of Perspective, a major reference bringing together sources, literature and bibliography across art, science, technology and visual knowledge.
A landmark interdisciplinary synthesis of perspective. It is available in three editions: a free open-access PDF download, a printed edition through Amazon, and an open-access Digital Edition for online consultation.

Explore the Printed Editions →

SUMS Perspective Database

SUMS was Professor Kim H. Veltman’s lifetime project to create a universally accessible, interconnected system of knowledge. Designed to link books, people, subjects, artworks, places and research across disciplines, the surviving system preserves 113,247 records and relationships, including 14,948 books and titles linked to 8,747 people. PRC is now restoring and rebuilding SUMS, bringing this knowledge system back to life as a searchable digital research resource.

Open SUMS Perspective — BETA →