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Article published In: Information Visualization
Edited by Isabel Meirelles, Marian Dörk and Yanni Loukissas
[Information Design Journal 27:1] 2022
► pp. 35–51

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Isotype of the conquest

Pictographic numeracy in sixteenth-century colonial México

 | The University of Arizona
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 17 November 2022
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https://doi.org/10.1075/idj.22012.nav
Abstract
This article introduces the Codices of The School of Huejotzingo as early examples of data visualization from sixteenth-century colonial México. The glyphs in the Codices and the technique of repetition are used to represent quantities. A similar approach was introduced four hundred years later in 1930s Vienna that would become known as Isotype. Similar to the Codices, Isotype used pictograms and repetition to represent quantities. A set of principles were established to design Isotype charts that were engaging and memorable. The Codices are analyzed using the principles of Isotype to contextualize and introduce them into the data visualization timeline.
Article outline
  • Three levels of reading and comprehension
  • Directional reading standards
  • Simplicity in form
  • Symmetry
  • Purposeful meaning
  • Qualifying symbols and color
  • Standardization of components
  • Repetition
  • Chunking
  • Final remarks
  • Notes
  • References
References (25)
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Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Navarro, María del Mar
2025. Isotype in Mexico: The Untold Story. She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation 11:1 ► pp. 7 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 11 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

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