diff --git a/kivy/atlas.py b/kivy/atlas.py
index 8c5026e5e..2f3377b9b 100644
--- a/kivy/atlas.py
+++ b/kivy/atlas.py
@@ -4,18 +4,21 @@ Atlas
 
 .. versionadded:: 1.1.0
 
-Atlas is a class for managing texture atlases: packing multiple textures into
+Atlas manages texture atlases: packing multiple textures into
 one. With it, you reduce the number of images loaded and speedup the
-application loading.
+application loading.  This module contains both the Atlas class and command line
+processing for creating an atlas from a set of individual PNG files.   The
+command line section requires the Pillow library, or the defunct Python Imaging
+Library (PIL), to be installed.
 
-An Atlas is composed of:
+An Atlas is composed of files:
+    - a json file (.atlas) that contains the image file names and texture
+      locations of the atlas.
+    - one or multiple image files containing textures referenced by the .atlas
+      file.
 
-    - a json file (.atlas) that contains all the information about the images
-      contained inside the atlas.
-    - one or multiple atlas images associated with the atlas definition.
-
-Definition of .atlas
---------------------
+Definition of .atlas files
+--------------------------
 
 A file with ``<basename>.atlas`` is a json file formatted like this::
 
@@ -28,7 +31,7 @@ A file with ``<basename>.atlas`` is a json file formatted like this::
         # ...
     }
 
-Example of the Kivy ``defaulttheme.atlas``::
+Example from the Kivy ``data/images/defaulttheme.atlas``::
 
     {
         "defaulttheme-0.png": {
@@ -40,21 +43,27 @@ Example of the Kivy ``defaulttheme.atlas``::
         }
     }
 
+In this example, "defaulttheme-0.png" is a large image, with the pixels in the
+rectangle from (431, 224) to (431 + 59, 224 + 24) usable as
+``atlas://data/images/defaulttheme/progressbar_background`` in
+any image parameter.
+
 How to create an Atlas
 ----------------------
 
 .. warning::
 
-    The atlas creation requires Imaging/PIL. This will be removed in the future
-    when the Kivy core Image is able to support loading / blitting / saving
-    operations.
+    The atlas creation requires the Pillow library (or the defunct Imaging/PIL
+    library). This requirement will be removed in the future when the Kivy core
+    Image is able to support loading, blitting, and saving operations.
 
 You can directly use this module to create atlas files with this command::
 
     $ python -m kivy.atlas <basename> <size> <list of images...>
 
+
 Let's say you have a list of images that you want to put into an Atlas. The
-directory is named ``images`` with lots of png files inside::
+directory is named ``images`` with lots of 64x64 png files inside::
 
     $ ls
     images
@@ -64,14 +73,15 @@ directory is named ``images`` with lots of png files inside::
 
 You can combine all the png's into one and generate the atlas file with::
 
-    $ python -m kivy.atlas myatlas 256 *.png
+    $ python -m kivy.atlas myatlas 256x256 *.png
     Atlas created at myatlas.atlas
-    1 image have been created
+    1 image has been created
     $ ls
     bubble.png bubble-red.png button.png button-down.png myatlas.atlas
     myatlas-0.png
 
 As you can see, we get 2 new files: ``myatlas.atlas`` and ``myatlas-0.png``.
+``myatlas-0.png`` is a new 256x256 .png composed of all your images.
 
 .. note::