This third edition of the landmark textbook Reading Images builds on its reputation as the first systematic and comprehensive account of the grammar of visual design. A must for students and scholars of communication, linguistics, design studies, media studies and the arts.

Gunther Kress was Professor of English and Head of the School of Culture, Language and Communication at the UCL Institute of Education, UK. His many ground-breaking publications include Language as Ideology (with Bob Hodge); Social Semiotics (with Bob Hodge); Early Spelling; Learning to Write; Multimodality: A Social Semiotic Approach to Contemporary Communication and Multimodality, Learning and Communication (with Jeff Bezemer).

Theo van Leeuwen is currently Professor of Language and Communication at the University of Southern Denmark and Honorary Professor at the University of New South Wales, Australia. His many influential publications include Multimodal Discourse: The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication (with Gunther Kress); Speech, Music, Sound; Introducing Social Semiotics and Discourse and Practice: New Tools for Critical Discourse Analysis.

List of Figures

Preface

Introduction: the grammar of visual design

1 The semiotic landscape: language and visual communication

2. Narrative representations: designing signs of social action

3. Conceptual representations: designing social constructs

4. Representation and interaction: designing the position of the viewer

5 Modality and validity: designing models of reality

6. The meaning of composition

7. Materiality and meaning

8. The third dimension

Bibliography

Index