Noun

Singular illustration

Plural illustrations

illustration (plural illustrations)

1. The act of illustrating; the act of making clear and distinct; education; also, the state of being illustrated, or of being made clear and distinct.
2. That which illustrates; a comparison or example intended to make clear or apprehensible, or to remove obscurity.
3. A picture designed to decorate a volume or elucidate a literary work.

French

Noun

illustration f. (plural illustrations)

1. illustration

Related terms

• illustrer

An illustration is a visualization such as a drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that stresses subject more than form. The aim of an illustration is to elucidate or decorate textual information (such as a story, poem or newspaper article) by providing a visual representation.

Overview

Illustrations can:

• give faces to characters in a story;
• display examples of an item described in an academic textbook;
• visualize step-wise sets of instructions in a technical manual;
• communicate subtle thematic tone in a narrative;
• link brands to the ideas of human expression, individuality and creativity;
• depict subjects which are difficult to view or cannot be viewed by the human eye, and
• inspire the viewer to feel emotion to expand on the linguistic aspects of the narrative.

History

Early history

The earliest forms of illustration were prehistoric cave paintings. Before the invention of the printing press, books were hand-illustrated. Illustration has been used in China and Japan since the 8th century, traditionally by creating woodcuts to accompany writing.