Reading Images

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.

'Reading Images has taught us how to look at and interpret images made over thousands of years. In this masterfully revised and expanded edition, Kress and van Leeuwen are doing it again, bringing us right back to the digital age. Their social semiotic theory has just become even more appealing and authoritative.'Adam Jaworski, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong'If images have gradually become central in communication, we have to discuss ways to read them. This book is not about rules, or right vs wrong; instead, it provides us the opportunity to reflect on images and processes of meaning-making. That is why this book is a ‘must read’ for anyone interested in visual communication.' Clarice Gualberto, UFMG, BrazilPraise for the first edition:'Reading Images is the most important book in visual communication since Jacques Bertin's Semiology of Information Graphics. It is both thorough and thought-provoking; a remarkable breakthrough.'Kevin G. Barnhurst, Syracuse University, USA

• List of FiguresPrefaceIntroduction: the grammar of visual design1 The semiotic landscape: language and visual communication2. Narrative representations: designing signs of social action 3. Conceptual representations: designing social constructs4. Representation and interaction: designing the position of the viewer5 Modality and validity: designing models of reality6. The meaning of composition7. Materiality and meaning8. The third dimensionBibliographyIndex