Technical illustration history

Technical illustrations flourished during the Renaissance period through the work of artists such as Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). Drawings like these were three-dimensional and generally without measurements. Craftsman worked from these 3D respresentation, creating products on a one-of-a-kind basis. These products were manufactured from hand sketches or handdrawing on blackboards.

During the industrial revolution mass production and outsourcing created the need to adopt conventions and standards in technical illustrations that were universally understood. By the mid 1900s both artistic and technical illustrators had a predictable methodology available for illustrating objects and environments more realistically. Technical illustrations were further advanced during the photorealistic art movement around 1960.
Until the 1960s illustrations used to be hand-drawn, but in the 1960s computer engineers created a method to draw both straight and curved lines using computers. This resulted in rapid advances in both computers and software and this allowed people to create even very complex technical illustrations on a computer.