This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2006)

A pictogram, also called a pictogramme or pictograph,^[1] is an ideogram that conveys its meaning through its pictorial resemblance to a physical object. Pictographs are often used in writing and graphic systems in which the characters are to considerable extent pictorial in appearance.

Pictography is a form of writing which uses representational, pictorial drawings. It is a basis of cuneiform and, to some extent, hieroglyphic writing, which uses drawings also as phonetic letters or determinative rhymes.

Historical[link]

Early written symbols were based on pictographs (pictures which resemble what they signify) and ideograms (symbols which represent ideas). Ancient Sumerian, Egyptian, and Chinese civilizations began to use such symbols over, developing them into logographic writing systems. Pictographs are still in use as the main medium of written communication in some non-literate cultures in Africa, The Americas, and Oceania. Pictographs are often used as simple, pictorial, representational symbols by most contemporary cultures.

Ojibwa pictographs on cliff-face at Agawa Rock, Lake Superior Provincial Park

Pictographs can often transcend languages in that they can communicate to speakers of a number of tongues and language families equally effectively, even if the languages and cultures are completely different. This is why road signs and similar pictographic material are often applied as global standards expected to be understood by nearly all.

Pictographs can also take the form of diagrams to represent statistical data by pictorial forms, and can be varied in color, size, or number to indicate change.

Pictographs can be considered an art form, and are designated as such in Pre-Columbian art, Native American art, and Painting in the Americas before Colonization. One example of many is the Rock art of the Chumash people, part of the Native American history of California. In 2011, UNESCO World Heritage adds to its list a new site "Petroglyphs Complexes of the Mongolian Altai, Mongolia"^[2] to celebrate the importance of the pictograms engraved in rocks.

Some scientists in the field of neuropsychiatry and neuropsychology, such as Prof. Dr. Mario Christian Meyer, are studying the symbolic meaning of indigenous pictograms and petroglyphs,^[3] aiming to create new ways of communication between native people and modern scientists to safeguard and valorize their cultural diversity.^[4]

Modern use[link]

Pictographs remain in common use today, serving as pictorial, representational signs, instructions, or statistical diagrams. Because of their graphical nature and fairly realistic style, they are widely used to indicate public toilets, or places such as airports and train stations.

A standard set of pictographs was defined in the international standard ISO 7001: Public Information Symbols. Another common set of pictographs are the laundry symbols used on clothing tags and chemical hazard labels.

Pictographic writing as a modernist poetic technique is credited to Ezra Pound, though French surrealists accurately credit the Pacific Northwest American Indians of Alaska who introduced writing, via totem poles, to North America.^[5]

Contemporary artist Xu Bing created Book from the Ground, a universal language made up of pictograms collected from around the world. A Book from the Ground chat program has been exhibited in museums and galleries internationally.

• 

  Native American Pictographs from the Great Gallery, Horseshoe Canyon, Canyonlands National Park

• 

  Sample National Park Service pictographs

• 

  Pictograph from 1510 telling a story of coming of missionaries to Hispaniola

• 

  Water, rabbit, deer pictographs on a replica of an Aztec Stone of the Sun

• 

  British Rail passenger safety pictographs at the end of the platform at Meols railway station

• Alligator pictogram.jpg

  A pictograph warning against swimming because of crocodiles at the Australia Zoo.

• 

  "No Dogs!" sign in Spain. The dog illustration is a pictograph. The red circle and bar is an ideogram representing the idea of "no" or "not allowed."

• 

  Push Sign for doors. Bowed door to the right shows force of door being pushed.

• 

  Pull Sign for doors. Bowed door to the left shows force of door being pulled.

• 

  The top traffic sign warns people of horses and riders.

• 

  ‎ A Recycling symbol.

• 

See also[link]

Notes[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Look up pictogram in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.