Edward R. Tufte, Envisioning Information

INTRODUCTION

The world is complex, dynamic, multidimensional; the paper is static, falt. How are we to represent the rich visual world of experience and measurement on mere flatland?

This book celebrates escapes from flatland, rendering several hundred superb displays of complex data. Revealed here are design strategies for enhancing the dimensionality and density of portrayals of inormation.

...

Charts, diagrams, graphs, tables, guides, instructions, directories, and maps compromise an enormous accumulation of material. Once described by Philip Morrison as "cognitive art," it embodies tens of trillions of images created and multiplied the world over every year. Despite the beauty and utility of the best work, design of inofmration has engaged little critical or aesthetic notice: there is no Museumn of Cognitive Art. This book could serve as a partial catalog for such a collection.

...

To envision information -- and what bright and splendid visions can result -- is to work at the intersection of image, word, number, art. The instruments are those of writing and typography, of managing large data sets and statistical analysis, of line and layout and color. And the standards of quality are those derived from visual principles that tell us how to put the right mark in the right place.

...