Micrography

Micrography is the art of creating images by writing text in very small script to form a larger pictorial composition. The text, which may be religious verses, poetry, or inscriptions, is arranged so that the density and shape of the letters produce a recognizable image when viewed up close, while from a distance the drawing is discernible.

Historically, micrography arose in late antiquity and flourished in medieval Jewish manuscript illumination, particularly in Iberia, North Africa, and the Middle East. Scribes used micrography to embed sacred texts or prayers within decorative motifs, sometimes encoding substantial portions of scripture within geometric or figural designs. The practice sits at the intersection of calligraphy and image-making.

Technique: The artist plans the composition first, then fills the design with lines of text, adjusting letter size, line length, and spacing to create shading and contours. The letters themselves remain legible at least to some extent, and the resulting image emerges from typographic density rather than separate drawing. The text is often written in Hebrew or other scripts as part of the design.

Modern usage: In contemporary art and graphic design, micrography continues as a visual poetry technique, appearing in printed books, posters, and digital media. It is studied in manuscript traditions as an example of concealed or integrated text.

Etymology and related terms: The term derives from Greek mikros "small" and graphia "writing". It is distinct from micrography in biology, which refers to microscope-generated images, and from the 1665 work Micrographia by Robert Hooke. See also: calligraphy, typographic art, microtext.