Theme

History

For more than 20 years, The Visual Dictionary has
shown and named the world around us more effectively than
any other reference book.

1982

Publisher Jacques Fortin and linguist Jean-Claude Corbeil met and came up with a plan for a thematic visual dictionary.
- 1986
  
  Partnership with the American publisher Facts on File, and publication of the first edition of The Visual Dictionary in a unilingual, black-and-white version.
- 1989
  
  Publication of The Junior Visual Dictionary, the first colour dictionary completely produced on computer, with images of unprecedented accuracy.
- 1991
  
  Originating from a partnership between the Ernst Klett Verlag and Qa International, the first PONS Bildwörterbuch is published.
- 1992
  
  Publication of a second edition of The Visual Dictionary in bilingual and multilingual versions. This colour edition, produced on computer, was a huge success, with more than 5 million copies sold in no fewer than 25 languages.
- 1994
  
  Publication of a second edition of The Junior Visual Dictionary.
- 1996
  
  Launch of The Visual Dictionary CD-ROM, with animation and pronunciation in three languages (English/French/Spanish). Winner of the Möbius International award for best multimedia product.
- 1997
  
  Publication of My First Visual Dictionary, a magnificently illustrated visual dictionary for children aged 2 years onwards.
- 2002
  
  Publication of a third edition of The New Visual Dictionary. The volume includes 6,000 illustrations, 800 subjects and 32,000 terms. This richer and more spectacular edition was named one of the “Best Reference Sources 2002” by the U.S. Library Journal.
- 2003
  
  Publication of The New Junior Visual Dictionary in a bilingual (English/French) edition and publication of The New Multilingual Visual Dictionary (English, French, Italian, German and Spanish) with 6,000 illustrations and 32,000 words in each language.
- 2004
  
  Launch of The New Visual Dictionary CD-ROM and publication of The Visual Dictionary with Definitions, the dictionary that shows, names, defines and explains. Information imparted by the illustrations is complemented by short definitions.
- 2005
  
  Launch of The Junior Visual Dictionary CD-ROM, a multimedia dictionary for young people aged 8 years onwards. Publication of an abridged edition of The Visual Dictionary and a second edition of My First Visual Dictionary in unilingual and bilingual (French/English) versions.
- 2007
  
  The latest in a series of mini dictionaries, the PONS 2 in 1 Wörterbuch is published.