Something like a phonographic dogma dominates the theory of writing: writing is considered to be a fixed version of spoken language. This essay intends to overcome the speech-oriented concept of writing by conceptualizing the idea of ‘notational iconicity’. Being hybrids, written texts embody both, linguistic and iconic attributes. The decisive argument in favour of ‘notational iconicity’ is not only its visuality, but the two-dimensional spatiality and operativity of writing. This kind of operational iconicity is inherent to almost all written texts and is based on the fact that written texts materially and perceptively present themselves synoptically and simultaneously. Inscribed surfaces open up a neatly arranged and controllable space of aisthetic presentation and tactile manipulations: Every written configuration can be reconfigured; thus writing is a paper-tool, a laboratory for cognitive and aesthetic activities. At this point the connection between writing and other forms of graphical media like graphs and diagrams matters: The cultural technique of ‘flattening out’ constitutes an important strand in our media evolution, for communication as cognition, for composition as computation.