Idiom: Picture paints a thousand words
A visual presentation is far more descriptive than words.
A picture tells a story just as well as, if not better than, a lot of written words.
This phrase emerged in the USA in the early part of the 20th century. Its introduction is widely attributed to Frederick R. Barnard, who published a piece commending the effectiveness of graphics in advertising with the title “One look is worth a thousand words”, in Printer’s Ink, December 1921.
Barnard claimed the phrase’s source to be oriental by adding “so said a famous Japanese philosopher, and he was right”. A picture is worth a thousand words
Printer’s Ink printed another form of the phrase in March 1927, this time suggesting a Chinese origin:
“Chinese proverb. One picture is worth ten thousand words.”
