Illustration from Perspectiva: Instruction in the Art of Measuring, with the Zirckel, straightening or Scheidt Linial. Perspective, in context of vision and visual perception, is the way in which objects appear to the eye based on their spatial attributes; or their dimensions and the position of the eye relative to the objects. There are two main meanings of the term: linear perspective and aerial perspective. In linear perspective objects become more distant they appear smaller because their visual angle decreases. Aerial perspective refers to the effect on the appearance of an ordinary object of being viewed through the atmosphere. Perspective in the graphic arts, is an approximate representation, on a flat surface, of an image as it is seen by the eye. The artist uses intuitive, artistic, scientific, or technical skills to represent the phenomenon of the visual perception of perspective. The two most characteristic features of perspective are that objects are drawn: smaller as their distance from the observer increases, and/or foreshortened where the size of an object's dimensions along the line of sight are relatively shorter than dimensions across the line of sight.