Abstract: We present an approach for clutter control in NPR line drawing where measures of view and drawing complexity drive the simplification or omission of lines. We define two types of density information: the a-priori density and the causal density, and use them to control which parts of a drawing need simplification. The a-priori density is a measure of the visual complexity of the potential drawing and is computed on the complete arrangement of lines from the view. This measure affords a systematic approach for characterizing the structure of cluttered regions in terms of geometry, scale, and directionality. The causal density measures the spatial complexity of the current state of the drawing as strokes are added, allowing for clutter control through line omission or stylization. We show how these density measures permit a variety of pictorial simplification styles where complexity is reduced either uniformly, or in a spatially-varying manner through indication.