Technical Illustration is the use of illustration to visually communicate information of a technical nature. Technical illustrations often take the form of component drawings or diagrams (usually isometric or orthogonal), and are sometimes viewed as a subset of graphic design or visual rhetoric.
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Creating Documentation that Shows 
Advocates using screen shots, text balloons, arrows, and scannable text to create picture-like documentation.
Eaton, Janet M.F. Intercom (2000). Design>Documentation>Technical Illustration>Screen Captures
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Sometimes it becomes necessary to create polylines that follow a certain path as a string of short segments. Here's a little trick that easily helps to solve this task.
ITEDO Software. Articles>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration
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Critiquing the Culture of Computer Graphing Practices 
This paper is a critique of current approaches to the development of computer graphing and graph visualization programs. Developers of these programs model the user as an individual problem solver who is reliant on perceptual skills to create and interpret graphed information. Such a model of graphing is ill-suited to meet the complex needs of real users, a supposition that is supported by work in two major areas of graphing theory and research: the sociology of science and the educational research of mathematics and scientific students. These areas have not been traditionally cited when planning computer graphing or visualization programs or when assessing their usability. A review of the literature in these fields reveals that an over-reliance on a user's perceptual skills is unlikely to result in successful graph practices.
Brasseur, Lee. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2001). Articles>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration>Charts and Graphs
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Cruise Ship Illustration Tutorial
This project presented many unique challenges. The actual ship was still in Germany being completed when I started the project. There was no photography or CAD reference to work from, only the paper blueprint you see below. In order to have the brochures completed by the time the ship went into service, the final illustration had to be finished in under two months.
Hulsey, Kevin. Kevin Hulsey Illustration. Design>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration
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Customer Satisfaction Lessons Learned from Building Furniture with Wordless Documentation
Documentation and package design play a major role in customer satisfaction. The author tested three sets of wordless documentation by building pieces of furniture from three different manufacturers. While the construction methods, packaging, and wordless documentation methods were on the surface very similar, small differences had a significant impact on the usability of the instructions and the overall customer satisfaction with the documentation and the product. Decisions that were handled differently included visual verification of parts, whether or not extra hardware was provided and how it was provided, the appropriateness of the hardware, the quality of the hardware, the need for additional tools, and the care evidenced in packaging and labeling of parts. From these experiences, she makes recommendations for enhancing customer satisfaction that apply not just to wordless documentation, but to other consumer products.
Norris Bradford, Annette. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Documentation>Technical Illustration>User Experience
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Like many of you, I come from a training background. Like many of you, we’re experts in group facilitation, engaging our learners, and creating instructionally sound materials. Yet, many trainers are not graphic artists nor do we have a score of graphic artists helping us create our training presentations. As a result, our training presentations often may not adequately represent the professionalism and quality that we’ve built into our training.
Traut, Terence R. Presenters University (2003). Design>Graphic Design>Image Editing>Technical Illustration
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The cutaway perspective is fundamentally a three dimensional sectional view.
Lightfoot, Peter. ITEDO Software (2002). Articles>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration
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Dam Visuals: The Changing Visual Argument for the Glen Canyon Dam
Arguments manifest in scientific visuals through graphic representation, content placement, and overall document structure. These arguments, designed to influence public perception, change over time in relation to sociopolitical climate. Analysis of a series of documents constructed deliberately to influence perception can help to determine patterns of argumentation and perceived exigencies. In this article, four self-guided tour brochures produced for distribution to visitors to the Glen Canyon Dam in 1977, 1984, 1990, and 1993 are analyzed in order to identify rhetorical strategies designed to influence public perceptions of the dam site, and examine how public perception of the dam, and related argumentation, is structured by sociopolitical climate.
Ross, Derek G. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2007). Articles>Scientific Communication>Technical Illustration>Visual Rhetoric
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Data Visualization of Web Stats: Logarithmic Charts and the Drooping Tail
Using a linear diagram to plot data from website traffic logs can lead you to overlook important conclusions. Sometimes advanced visualizations are worth the effort.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2006). Articles>Web Design>Technical Illustration>Log Analysis
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Site covering both traditional and digital illustration.
Froehlich, Sara. Designorati. Design>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration
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Digital Photography for the Web
Like digital photography? Here's a look at tools and tricks you can use to create great photos for your site.
Calore, Michael. Webmonkey (2003). Design>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration>Web Design
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Distance Measurement in Perspective
In isometric, it is possible to work directly with measurements only on the main axes. Here you can learn what you have to do if you need a measure beyond the main axes.
ITEDO Software (2003). Design>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration>Isometric
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Doing Illustrations: A Question of Accuracy and Fairness
Does the illustration I'm creating, or using, depict that person's race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, abilities, etc. accurately?
Colon, Aly. Poynter Online (2004). Design>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration
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Most technical writers use much more care in choosing words than in presenting numbers. The writer who presents numbers poorly loses credibility. Poorly presented numbers also cause reader misunderstanding that leads to poor decisions.
Robbins, Naomi B. MetroVoice (2002). Design>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration>Charts and Graphs
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Don't Fool with Graphs, Part II 
Using evenly spaced tick marks to represent different time intervals is a common error which has been repeated several times in recent STC publications and presentations.
Robbins, Naomi B. MetroVoice (2003). Design>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration>Charts and Graphs
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If you create technical art in Illustrator, check out these tips - in fact, check them out even if you don't.
Alspach, Ted and Jennifer Alspach. Adobe Magazine (1996). Design>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration>Adobe Illustrator
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Drawing to Learn Science: Legacies of Agassiz
The use of visual representation to learn science can be traced to Louis Agassiz, Harvard Professor of Zoology, in the mid-19th century. In Agassiz's approach, students were to study nature through carefully observing, drawing and then thinking about what the observations might add up to. However, implementation of Agassiz's student-centered approach has struggled with the conflict between science as a form of developing "mental discipline" in which mastery of scientific facts is the goal and science learning as a socially situated activity with an emphasis on the process of learning, not merely its products. Present-day attempts to have students draw to learn science often succumb to these same conflicts, limiting their full realization.
Lerner, Neal. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2007). Articles>Scientific Communication>Technical Illustration>History
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To prevent the infographic artists from getting bored somebody invented the web ... But we still think like we do work for printed papers. I won't suggest that we should concentrate on entertainment, but there's a lot we can learn from game-design.
Longauer, Walter. VisualJournalism (2002). Articles>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration
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La Edad de Oro de la Visualización
Después de repasar la semana pasada los inicios de la visualización en este artículo veremos el arranque de los gráficos modernos, la edad de oro de la creatividad gráfica y los avances previos al actual momento de explosión creativa.
Dursteler, Juan Carlos. InfoVis (2003). (Spanish) Design>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration
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Although his books mostly predate the Internet phenomenon, Tufte's ideas certainly have applications in web site design. As was pointed out on a handout, they can also be used for teaching, news graphics, technical illustrations, displaying financial data, decision-making, animation, and a host of other areas. It appeared that many in the audience were primarily interested in web design, and Tufte spent some time discussing this.
Kuro5hin (2001). Design>Web Design>Usability>Technical Illustration
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This presentation examines ineffective technical graphics with problems in simplicity, orientation, and scale. It identifies principles of effective graphic communication that could prevent such problems, and clarifies objectives and techniques in designing editing and preparing technical graphics for printed documents and briefing materials. Graphics principles illustrated by transparencies include avoiding clutter, orienting properly, controlling scales, checking the content, and avoiding extraneous graphics. message, and that the table title or figure caption focuses clearly on the subject of the graphic.
Samson, Donald C., Jr. STC Proceedings (1993). Design>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration>Visual Rhetoric
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Jacques Bertin es una de las figuras fundamentales de la visualización de Información dado que fue el primero en articular una teoría coherente y razonada para el análisis de la representación cuantitativa en forma gráfica. En este artículo contesta a nuestras preguntas.
Dursteler, Juan Carlos. InfoVis (2003). (Spanish) Design>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration
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As the term implies, the exploded view shows an assembly with its components blown out from the main body, but still remaining in relative order along their respective centrelines.
Lightfoot, Peter. ITEDO Software (2002). Articles>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration
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General guidelines for illustrative figures in technical reports.
Young, V.L. and K.J. Sampson. Ohio University (2004). Articles>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration>Charts and Graphs
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The illustration of a cube with filleted corners follows specific rules. Therefore, you must account for certain considerations when you depict such a cube. Get to know more about these filleted corners and learn how to build such a cube correctly.
ITEDO Software (2003). Design>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration>Isometric
