Top 15 Jacques Bertin Quotes

French geographer and cartographer (1918–2010)

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Jacques Bertin (July 27, 1918 – May 3, 2010) was a French cartographer and theorist, known from his book Semiologie Graphique (Semiology of Graphics), published in 1967. This monumental work, based on his experience as a cartographer and geographer, represents the first and widest intent to provide a theoretical foundation to .

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Data is transformed into graphics to understand. A map, a diagram are documents to be interrogated. But understanding means integrating all of the data. In order to do this it’s necessary to reduce it to a small number of elementary data. This is the objective of the “data treatment” be it graphic or mathematic.

The problem that still remains to be solved is that of the orderable matrix, that needs the use of imagination... When the two components of a data table are orderable, the normal construction is the orderable matrix. Its permutations show the analogy and the complementary nature that exist between the algorithmic treatments and the graphical treatments.

The use of computers shouldn’t ignore the objectives of graphics, that are:

The author has the reputation of being against color. I am indeed against color when it masks incompetence; when it allows the superimposition of characteristics to the point of absurdity; when people believe it capable of representing ordered data.

As with any graphic, networks are used in order to discover pertinent troups of to inform others of the groups and structures discovered. It is a good means of displaying structures, However, it ceases to be a means of discovery when the elements are numerous. The ﬁgure rapidly becomes complex, illegible and untransformable.

[The special properties of visual perception of data]... is the visual means of resolving logical problems.

A graphic is a diagram when correspondences on the plane can be established among all elements of another component.

The aim of the graphic is to make the relationship among previously defined sets appear.

If, in order to obtain a correct and complete answer to a given question, all other things being equal, one construction requires a shorter observation time than another construction, we can say that it is more efficient for this question.

Value perception dominates color perception.

[Bertin's 'color' refers to] the repertoire of colored sensations which can be produced at equal value.

When the correspondences on the plane can be established among all the divisions of the same component, the construction is a network.

When the correspondences on the plane can be established between:

The plane is the mainstay of all graphic representation. It is so familiar that its properties seem self-evident, but the most familiar things are often the most poorly understood. The plane is homogeneous and has two dimensions. The visual consequences of these properties must be fully explored.

[Overall level questions involved an] understanding of the deep structure of the data being presented in their totality, usually comparing trends and seeing groupings.