Graphics are visual presentations on some surface such as
a wall, canvas, computer screen, paper, or stone to inform,
illustrate, or entertain. Examples are photographs, drawings,
Line Art, graphs, diagrams, typography, numbers, symbols,
geometric designs, maps, engineering drawings, or other images.
Graphics often combines text, illustration, and color. Graphics
Design may consist of the deliberate selection, creation,
or arrangement of typography alone, as in a brochure, flier,
poster, web site, or book without any other element. Clarity
or effective communication may be the objective, association
with other cultural elements may be sought, or merely, the
creation of a distinctive style.
Graphics can be functional or artistic. Graphics can be imaginary
or represent something in the real world. The latter can be
a recorded version, such as a photograph, or an interpretation
by a scientist to highlight essential features, or an artist,
in which case the distinction with imaginary graphics may
get blurred.
History
The earliest graphics known to anthropologists studying prehistoric
periods are cave paintings and markings on boulders, bone,
ivory, and antlers created during the Upper Palaeolithic period
from 40,000 - 10,000 B.C. or earlier. Many of these were found
to record astronomical, seasonal, and chronological details.
Some of the earliest graphics and drawings known to the modern
world, from almost 6,000 years ago, are that of engraved stone
tablets and ceramic cylinder seals, marking the beginning
of the historic periods and the keeping of records for accounting
and inventory purposes.
Records from Egypt predate these and
papyrus was used by the Egyptians as a material on which to
plan the building of pyramids; they also used slabs of limestone
and wood. From 600-250 BC the Greeks played a major role in
geometry. They used graphics to represent their mathematical
theories such as the Circle Theorem and the Pythagorean theorem.
