6   Methods of Presentation

Technical Illustrations

Technical illustrations are usually drawn as line art and are used to show:

• the appearance of equipment that does not exist yet
• views that are impossible to photograph, such as the inside of a piece of equipment
• how parts fit together

Complex illustrations should have a figure number and caption. The figure number is used when referring the reader to the figure. The caption should clearly identify what the illustration is showing.

Use callouts with leader lines or arrows to label the parts you wish to draw the reader’s attention to. While leader lines are the simplest, they can become confused with the lines of the illustration. In which case, use arrows instead.

Illustrations are usually created by professional technical illustrators using technical drawing software, or are drawn by hand and scanned into digital form. See Figure 6-5.

Figure 6-5: Sample technical illustration

Some simple illustrations of common objects, such as computers and keyboards, are also available as electronic clip-art.

Tips on Using Technical Illustrations

Here are some tips on using technical illustrations:

• Keep illustrations simple. Eliminate details that are not essential to the information you are trying to convey. Unlike photographs, you can easily eliminate unimportant detail.

• Use photographs instead if you simply want to show what something looks like.

• Specify the finished size of the illustration so the illustrator knows how thick the lines should be and the type size for callouts.