Plane
A flat surface that organizes two-dimensional elements within a composition.
In practice
A plane is a flat surface that organizes a composition. In two-dimensional work, planes are areas such as a colored panel, a photo or a text block that sit in front of or behind one another; in three dimensions, they are flat sheets such as the panels of a cabinet. A website might use a gray background plane, a white card on top of it and a soft shadow to show which is nearer.
Often confused with Layer
A plane is a flat surface the viewer perceives; a layer is a software object in a file, which may or may not read as its own plane.
Try this
Overlap three colored paper rectangles so that one clearly reads as front, one middle and one back.
Related terms
PointThe minimal, indivisible visual unit — the origin from which line, plane, and spatial relationships extend.LineA directional trace that defines movement, a boundary, or continuity between points.VolumeA three-dimensional space defined by its boundaries, or implied by the relationships between the planes that suggest it.