Questions tagged [cartography]
Using artistic and scientific principles for creating maps and graphically representing geographic areas
864 questions
184
votes
47
answers
130k
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Seeking examples of beautiful maps? [closed]
Oftentimes when we make maps it is based on our subjective interpretation of what is aesthetically pleasing. I would like it if people posted examples of beautiful maps, displaying any phenomena in ...
118
votes
13
answers
9k
views
Accounting for Colour Blindness when designing maps?
Depending on what you read, 7 to 15% of the general population has some form of colour blindness.
Can this be accounted for in map designs and, if so, how?
- 28.3k
72
votes
11
answers
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What Makes a Map be classed as Badly Designed?
A poorly designed map can not only look visually unappealing, but can convey the wrong message, which could lead to bad decisions being made.
I would like to ask people to post examples (that are in ...
62
votes
12
answers
9k
views
Visualizing speed of movement on static (= printable) map?
Imagine you're tracking, for example, vehicle or animal movement and receive regular GPS position updates. How would you visualize speed of movement on a static (= printable) map? I've been coloring ...
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60
votes
6
answers
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One dimensional map of the world?
Bit of a strange question but hope this is OK to ask here.
Has anyone heard of a '1-dimensional' projection of the world map - that is mapping all the points on the globe to a single line?
I was ...
- 883
56
votes
4
answers
16k
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Why has Web Mercator (auxiliary sphere) become the web map standard?
I understand what the difference is between the Web Mercator projection and Web Mercator Auxiliary Sphere (WMAS). I also understand that both Google and Esri have adopted this projection as their ...
- 1,368
41
votes
15
answers
7k
views
Using Computer Games to display GIS data?
Besides being a GIS user I'm a big computer game fan.
Games like Civilization, Minecraft, World at War and many others have a very powerful engine to display huge maps in a beautiful way.
Is it ...
41
votes
5
answers
36k
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Making beautiful maps in R? [closed]
There are quite some nice possibilities to analyse spatial data in R and in the context of my current project I would like to use R more frequently to do that.
Until now I plot my maps with ggplot2 ...
- 1,401
40
votes
4
answers
10k
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Using directional shading on boundaries for cartographic effect in ArcGIS Desktop?
The attached screenshot of a National Geographic map shows some beautiful directional shading of boundaries. I'm trying to reproduce this sort of shading for a burn perimeter map, as I want to ...
- 51.8k
34
votes
2
answers
21k
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Styling road maps with QGIS?
I am trying to design a beautiful map using QGIS.
There is a similar question here Seeking QGIS tutorials and web resources? but I would like to focus on "designing a map using QGIS".
I was looking ...
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34
votes
5
answers
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Can I reproduce this classic cartographic hillshade relief effect (hachures) electronically using modern DEM data?
I own a number of old cetral-European maps and I always liked the classic hand-drawn cartographic hillshade relief presentation that these maps feature. I am not wanting to reproduce the shading (...
- 20.4k
33
votes
3
answers
12k
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How to hide "internal" polygon boundaries?
Our task is to draw a lake with a solid outer perimeter line and no lines between internal wetlands, shoals and shallows? 'Tis a relatively straightforward process with Arcinfo coverages and Regions, ...
- 28.3k
32
votes
2
answers
4k
views
Why do we use the terms “longitude” and “latitude” for a spherical body?
To specify a geographic coordinate we use the terms “longitude” and “latitude”. Far as I know, these terms derive from the Latin latitudo (=
breadth) and longitudo (= length). In German we use the ...
- 6,239
31
votes
9
answers
7k
views
Effectively displaying demographic data on a printed map
I would like to plot the following per zone (30 zones total) data on a printable/non interactive map:
Average age
Average household income
Number of households
Population density
Number of people
...
- 8,563
30
votes
5
answers
5k
views
Coloring thousands of polygons so each is distinct from its neighbors?
I am using ArcGIS 10, and I have layers of the 2010 Census blocks, block groups, and tracts. There are thousands of polygons in these layers.
I want to color them so that each is distinct from its ...
- 445
28
votes
6
answers
9k
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Good websites for map-lovers?
I often visit strange-maps, cool-maps, makingmaps and hipkiss.org.
Do you know of other good websites for map-lovers?
27
votes
7
answers
15k
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Examples of geovisualizations of global connectivity
I stumbled upon interesting visualization of global connectivity patterns:
'Major road and rail networks in Africa, along with transmission line
and underwater cable data.'
(Source, more ...
26
votes
5
answers
3k
views
Is it appropriate to create vertical scale bars?
I'm working on a map where the main theme is a railway line which runs vertically down the page. I've been wondering how to approach creating a scale bar for this map. To my eye a horizontal scale bar ...
- 27.9k
26
votes
4
answers
5k
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Making map where overlapping symbols increase Opacity?
I was looking at some maps like: Map from Ship Logs
or the Facebook worldwide friendships Mapped (via the Flowing Data blog)
These Maps look good because single lines are almost transparent, and as ...
- 41.6k
26
votes
5
answers
6k
views
Rendering overlapping lines
I am making a map containing information about public transportation: busses, trams, etc. The map will have a layer containing for example the tram lines. Each line has its own colour, and is ...
- 1,093
25
votes
9
answers
15k
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Are North Arrows Pointless?
A recent post on Cartastrophe refers to a "Worldwide Campaign to Eliminate Needless North Arrows."
So when, if ever, are North arrows necessary?
As an interesting aside the concept of North being up ...
- 14.4k
24
votes
3
answers
5k
views
What do these curly graphics represent on this map?
What do the two curly graphics to the left and right of this map represent? They are the only two on the map and seem to be attached to the border of an area.
I'm sorry I haven't posted the full map, ...
- 455
23
votes
5
answers
34k
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How to produce a better inset map in ArcMap?
Attached is an example of a generic inset map designed in ArcMap 10. For all the wonderful things that this software can accomplish, there has to be a more sophisticated way to produce better looking ...
- 51.8k
23
votes
12
answers
7k
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Discontinuous or Interrupted map projections
Do any of the current open source GIS softwares support discontinous projection systems e.g. sinusoidal, dymaxion, butterfly, etc?
If not, are there any affordable commercial ones that do (affordable ...
- 28.3k
22
votes
5
answers
42k
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How to convert a spatialpolygon to a SpatialPolygonsDataFrame and add a column to the attribute table
coast<-readShapeSpatial("coastline.shp")
landc<-readShapeSpatial("landcover.shp")
ro<-readShapeSpatial("roads.shp")
bc<-gBuffer(ro,width=100)
landc$ratings=1
landc$ratings[landc$LANDUSE_ID=...
- 1,246
20
votes
8
answers
6k
views
Where to start learning how to make maps with QGIS?
I have no skills in GIS, "map-making," or any other map program. Been a county planner for 25 yrs, where there was always a "drafting" staff. I'm in another agency now and need to be able to produce ...
- 201
20
votes
2
answers
4k
views
Polygon gradient fills / tint bands in QGIS
Is it possible to use a gradient fill on a polygon in QGIS?
I would like to have my polygons with a colour at the edges, fading to clear/white as it moves away from the edge. The majority of the ...
- 4,304
20
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Making world map to show where hole drilled through centre of Earth starts/ends on land vs water?
I am discussing drilling through the Earth with my students.
The classic cartoon version has a person drilling down in the United States and coming up in China, which has to be wrong because drilling ...
- 201
19
votes
4
answers
36k
views
How to style points in QGIS based on multiple attributes
While trying to find a useful way having earthquakes displayed, I noticed that it isn't that easy to manage.
I'd like to be able to recognize the "Magnitude", "Date", and "Depth" from the style of ...
- 880
19
votes
1
answer
272
views
What User Testing techniques do you use?
In producing dynamic maps for students/users I have found the time invested in user testing well worth it. I use a varient of think aloud protocol called hallway testing. I grab any 2 or 3 likely ...
- 821
18
votes
2
answers
31k
views
Convert a spatial polygon object to data frame using R
My goal is to modify an existing shapefile by merging certain polygons.
After importing the shapefile and using the UnionSpatialPolygons command, I get the polygon outline that I want.
However, this ...
- 181
18
votes
3
answers
2k
views
How much Water on Earth(USGS) : A Wrong Map representation?
I happened to read a USGS article, How much water is there on, in, and above the Earth? showing a representation of all the water(which includes water from Oceans, Seas,Bays,Ice caps, Glaciers, ...
- 7,290
18
votes
4
answers
2k
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Using GIS tools for non-geographical problems
Many other fields have visual/"spatial" problems that can potentially be solved with GIS tools. I know I've used GIS tools for the odd non-geographical task and was wondering how much this happens and ...
18
votes
4
answers
19k
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What is a good resource for learning to hand draw a map?
I've been wanting to go old school & draw some maps by hand... Something like you might see on the first page of an adventure novel. I've found next to nothing on the web and am hoping that one of ...
18
votes
3
answers
2k
views
How to improve cartographic visualization of overlapping polygons?
I need some advice about how to improve the visualization of cartographic information.
User can select different species and the webmapping app shows its geographical distribution (polygonal degree ...
- 419
18
votes
0
answers
8k
views
Creating trade flow maps in ArcGIS for Desktop (or any free software)? [duplicate]
I am trying to represent trade flows on a world map where the size and direction of arrows indicate the exports/imports of a given country.
This type of map is commonly found in magazines and ...
- 2,810
17
votes
5
answers
14k
views
Appropriate map projection for the Pacific Ocean
I've found this map that shows the Pacific Ocean from http://www.transpacificproject.com:
I'd like to produce a similar map, for the same region of the earth and I'd like to use the same projection ...
- 273
17
votes
10
answers
2k
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Blogs about digital cartography?
I´m looking for blogs or good websites about digital/web cartography...i´m not really interested in the deep technical ramblings (i´ve the forum lists for that) but rather inspirational blogs which ...
17
votes
7
answers
2k
views
What cartographic line symbol could make a coastline represent water like this old map?
I live in a coastal area with lots of islands. Sometimes with a black and white map it's hard to distinguish land from sea. So I'm trying to replicate this old map's style.
I'm trying to do this in ...
- 487
17
votes
1
answer
14k
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Representing overlapping lines in ArcGIS Desktop? [duplicate]
I have lots of lines (in one feature class) which share the same location but I want to represent them as lines that are next to each other because they have different properties (different OWNERS).
...
- 1,476
16
votes
5
answers
29k
views
How to Zoom in QGIS Print Composer Without a Scroll Wheel
I am attempting to print a simple map from QGIS in portrait orientation. When I use the "Add New Map" tool it brings the map in at an extent which matches my original data frame if I were to use ...
- 2,292
16
votes
5
answers
3k
views
Is there a name for deformation-based maps?
I have already seen maps using deformation to visualize information. For example, this map shows temporal distance between some French cities when traveling by train: http://www.nf-ameublement-pro.com/...
- 515
16
votes
3
answers
7k
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How to speed-up Dynamic Map services?
I am working on a ESRI Flex based application that will display data from a Dynamic Map Service. It need to be Dynamic, since the end user should have the option to turn on & off layers. This is ...
- 41.6k
16
votes
12
answers
11k
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Alternative cartographic software programs?
I am looking for an alternative software product for cartography other than ArcGIS and Adobe Illustrator. The graphic quality in ArcGIS outputs is substantially poor when compared to outputs in ...
16
votes
7
answers
9k
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Is it easy to digitize in ArcGIS using the Wacom tablet?
I do just enough digitizing (and touching up/ drawing when post-processing) to perhaps warrant the purchase of a Wacom tablet. Just wondering how well it plays with ArcGIS. What are your experiences? ...
- 20.4k
16
votes
6
answers
2k
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What's the most promising application (use) of OpenStreetMap data? [closed]
In some areas OSM data is very complete and has a level of detail not seen in closed data sources. Another distinguishing factor is that it contains the knowledge of the people who live in that areas. ...
- 9,865
16
votes
1
answer
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How can I render latitude-longitude coordinates on a map with D3?
I am trying to overlay dots of arbitrary sets of longitude-latitude coordinates on top of a United States map.
So far I have found the D3 cartography example, but when I try to place dots on X,Y ...
- 261
16
votes
3
answers
10k
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Cartographic techniques for symbolizing routing data [closed]
Some common problems with displaying routes created from street data, such as bus routes, include:
Routes may overlap themselves, such as when a route takes the same road in opposite directions
...
- 35.9k
16
votes
4
answers
2k
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What resources can you suggest for making beautiful online Maps or Mapping applications?
As a GIS developer, my design skills are rather limited. Are there any links, books or resources, that you would suggest to make my online maps more pleasing and beautiful?
15
votes
4
answers
5k
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Rendering dashed lines between adjacent polygons correctly in QGIS
I have adjacent polygons that I want to be marked out with dashed or dotted lines. This sometimes works but there appears to be a problem where the pattern isn't always synchronised on the shared ...
- 213