Picture languages with array rewriting rules

Generative models of picture languages with array rewriting rules are presented. The rewriting rules are regular, context-free or context-sensitive with arrays of terminals in the place of strings of terminals. Derivations are restricted by the condition for row and column catenation. The grammars describe a wide variety of pictures and are more powerful than the matrix grammars for digital pictures introduced in our earlier paper. A distinct hierarchy is shown to exist between the different classes introduced. The models are closed under reflection (about base and rightmost vertical), halfturn, quarter-turn, transpose, and conjugation. Further closure properties such as union, product, star and homomorphism are examined. The models can be applied to generate several interesting patterns of kolam and to describe the repetitive patterns of two-dimensional crystallography. Each letter of the alphabet of different sizes can be generated by a context-free array grammar