Introduces two systems that increase the information density of textual presentation by reconsidering text as pictures, expanding the range of written expression. Notes that these systems are implemented as computer programs, active filters that represent textual information graphically. (SR)

Argues for the analyzing, studying, and describing of text pages as configurations of columns and lines and as constallations of alphabets. (FL)

Presents a study in which ads in simulated telephone directory pages were highlighted in red, green, and blue colors. States that the pages were presented to subjects in order to be recalled and recognized among other ads. Finds that red and green highlighting increases recallability and recognizability whereas blue decreases it. (PA)

Steps aside from conventional ideas about diagrams to examine how they work. Brings to bear ideas from a perceptual psychologist, a communication theorist, and a philosopher. Introduces the papers in this special issue as diagrams for worldmaking. (SR)

Examines an avant-garde illustrated book and suggests that "deviant" books urge a kind of reading that gives visibility to the text and seeks out relationships created between two volumes--the book and its words. (DF)

Perceptual processes of reading can be investigated meaningfully without having to make detailed statements about higher-level processing and about the nature of the interactions between downward flowing cognitive information and upward flowing information resulting from visual processing. (HOD)

Reports the findings of experiments that suggest that much of perception, even to high interpretive levels, is automatic and independent of intention or consciousness, and that the production of words in reading may involve problems that have nothing to do with articulation, even if the words have been identified. (GT)

Reconsiders the usual typologies of diagram presentations, questioning accepted taxonomies. Examines diagrammatic structures, revealing some hardened categories. Suggests that new discoveries can be made if questions are raised about how information is framed. (SR)

Discusses the effects on oculomotor behavior of variations of the physical attributes of text and similar effects from physical word cues processed in the reader's parafoveal vision. (HOD)

Reports conversations with children attending a New Zealand reading clinic that indicate that the maximum brightness contrast of black-on-white print was a strong contributing factor in the children's reading disabilities. (Author/GT)

Presents computational and psychophysical evidence in support of a theory of one of the earliest stages of visual processing in reading--the isolation of words in text. (HOD)

Describes the habits of human reasoning that distort designers' abilities to intuit how users will understand and respond to graphics. Advocates two solutions: investigating scientifically how visuals communicate to viewers, and using user-based iterative design to explore user's reactions while developing design prototypes. (SR)

Reviews work on three areas of visual information that are available to readers: information provided by the conventional arrangements of the print on the page, by the features of each letter, and by the shapes of entire words. (HOD)

Delineates how the transition from one element to another facilitates the identification of individual form and function. Explains the process of bridging separate forms and functions to give meaning to what is seen. (KEH)

Presents a language processing model that distinguishes four functional components of reading and listening: feature detection, primary recognition, secondary recognition, and rehearsal and recoding. Uses the model to describe and incorporate some recent research. (GT)