The acquisition of information from pictures and the relationship between canonical orientation and the function of objects were studied. Twenty introductory educational psychology students experienced a set of five common objects, three different functional uses, and four possible orientations for each object. The results analyzed for one stimulus only indicate that the subjects spend more time on the first presentation of an object and rejects the hypothesis that subjects spend more time on features that are essential to the function being addressed. If the verification of functional uses follows from object identification, and the time to identify an object is greatest on the first presentation. Processing load in the illustration of texts and manuals can be minimized if attention is given to the initial presentation of an object. It is further concluded that the critical features of the object should be identified and displayed with the object in its most typical orientation. (PN)