Perspective has at least three meanings.

• Perspective (visual) refers to some of the information in the visual scene that allows an observer to perceive the distances and sizes of objects. Specific types of perspective in visual perception are linear perspective, texture gradients , and aerial perspective.

• Perspective (graphical) refers to the graphic representation of objects on a planar surface to give an illusion of the objects in three-dimensional space.

• Perspective (cognitive) refers to a theory of cognition in which the choice of a context or a reference (or the result of this choice) influences how we sense, categorize, measure, or codify experience, typically for comparing with another. One may further recognize a number of subtly distinctive meanings, close to those of Point of view, Weltanschauung, and paradigm.

The key idea unifying these types of perspective is that human experience is tied closely to the one's point of view.