Cartography: The Essential Elements of Map making

 

Today I am going to show some maps I put together using a variety of data sets and techniques. 

But the main focus of todays article is to talk about Cartography!

Cartography is the following - "The science of making maps"

Cartography is how we make great maps. It is the process of using map essential elements, such as a title, legend, scale, and even orientation to help an end user understand what a map is about. It tells us map creators what we need to put on a map for it to make sense. If you put a bunch of points on a map with colors and data, we need to tell the map reader what that data symbolizes. This is why legends are crucial when making maps. Cartography talks about using symmetry to orient these map elements and texts on your map in a way that is appeasing to a viewer. 

In a way, Cartography and map making is a lot like being an artist, or even graphics design. The processes used are very similar, and helps marketers target particular audiences with their maps. 

Making maps legible, or easy to read and understand. Using colors for visual contrast of darks and lights, hue color changes and saturation of certain symbols helps your map stand out and capture the map reader. Figure-ground orientation identifies the data and layer son your map and how map viewers orient themselves to seeing the data in the real world. You wouldn't put roadways underneath an ocean layer right? 

Cartography is a great way to understand how to structure a map with organizational hierarchy, knowing where to pout the data and how to show it to a reader. *It's science, but with an artistic approach!

That being said, let's take a look at a few maps I put together and see what cartographic principles I used to make them work for the end user. 

For the first map I created, I set the following symbology for all my data layers as the following…

·       The Basemap for my map design was a light gray canvas so that the land features would stand out with high visual contrast. By using a light background and dark colors for my symbology layers it allows the viewer to identify the features more visibly
·       The Hydrology used was a blue polygon color that was dark and not only represents the true color of water but also visually contrasts with the light background of the map (I added the light blue outline color to help the water features stand out). I also ensured this layer was underneath the major roads so that if a road went over a waterway the viewer could visibly see it
·       Major Roads were represented with a brownish red color with a dark outline, which clearly defines the roads in the map and allows the roads to be seen but to not take away too much attention from the rest of the layers. I kept the roads as solid lines and avoided the dashed lines.
·       The golf courses were very similar to the hydrology layer, except they were represented as dark green polygons to match the true color of green golf courses.
·       The Travis County boundary was represented as a no fill polygon with a dark red outline boundary. This allows the map viewer to see everything within the county but also note the area of the county. If I were to fill the background of the county it would become to busy for the map viewer to make out certain land features
·       The last symbology I used was for my recreation centers. I decided to use a push pin like symbology of homes seeing that they are similar to centers since they are a building. I used a dark symbol to visually contrast the points to grab the viewers attention. I then used a white halo to surround the icons.

To make this map of Travis County more appropriate for end users I would like to add more data to this map such as the different districts of the county, or the boundary of what is considered to be within the city limits of Austin. I would also add any parks in the city, cultural sites or centers, the government buildings such as the courthouse or city hall building. 

If there are any campuses of schools or Universities, I would add those polygons as well within the city. Also, an overview map of the state of Texas with the county being highlighted as an extent indicator would be beneficial to people who aren’t familiar where the city if Austin or Travis County is located. However, if we add to much data the map becomes very busy and it is hard to understand what is being displayed. If the map is only showing the city of Austin, then technically the map could be zoomed in and just show the city instead of the entire county, therefore providing more space to add more data within the city. 

Visual Contrast – I used a light canvas basemap to then utilize dark symbology to contrast the map so that the data I am displaying is very visible to the viewer. I used true color symbology as well so that the features contrast with the map and help the map readers understand what each feature is such as blue for hydrology. The outline colors help highlight the features for visual separation, and the dark red outlines for the map elements help keep the theme of the map consistent and are easy to view. These map elements do not take away from the map itself.

• Legibility – All of the labels used in my map are easy to read and the text is very visible to the map reader. The titles are easy to follow and understand, and none of the data layers block any text on the map. I used different size fonts depending on the titles or subtitles in which all are visible to the map reader.
• Figure-Ground Orientation- I placed the county boundary at the bottom of my data layers. Then I used the hydrology and golf courses next as they “lay “on the ground below any manmade infrastructure. Then the roads are placed on top since certain major roads can be built and run over water and land features. Last, I placed the recreation centers and I used push pin symbology to make it appear as if the centers were sitting on top of the map which is appealing to the map reader. I want these centers to stand out, but I also want the visual aspect of the centers being above the ground layer of the map.
• Hierarchal Organization- I began this map product with the title, which immediately tells the map readers what this map is about (the city of Austin, Texas). I then added some smaller texts letting the viewer know who created the map and when it was created. Followed by the title is the map itself with a picture of the city, a sub title to demonstrate what county the map is looking at, and then followed by a legend for the map itself. The map is then organized with a hierarchy of neighboring cities around the county, followed by the data inside the county, with a city subtitle of Austin in the middle of the map which grabs the viewers attention. Then the hierarchy goes to an overview map of the state of Texas to give the reader a geographic perspective of where the county is in relation to the state of Texas. The last part of the hierarchy for this map is the sources used for the data that is being displayed on the map, as well as the map’s orientation (north arrow), scale bar, and zoom scale of the map.
• Balance- The map uses asymmetrical symmetry for the data on the map, but it is centered in the middle of the pdf to grab the readers attention. The center focus with the data and the county allows the viewer a center point to focus their attention when reading the map. There is symmetry for the map elements at the bottom of the pdf. The data symbology and labels do not cover each other up which also adds more balance to the map. The map elements are on both the left and right side of the pdf, with text at the top and bottom making it a well-rounded pdf with not to much data being stacked on one side of the document.  

For visual contrast I used different colors for the labels of Harvest Stand C and D and made the money labels underneath each section green. I made the protected lands symbology a transparent red of 30% so that it would be easier to see rather than a bright red all over the map. I added the colored font to the title of the map as well to provide a visual appeal.

Legibility – All of the text on the map is easy to read and makes sense. The font is large enough and is not blocked by any symbology or graphics.

Figure-ground orientation – The background land data is the bottom most layer for section D and C. On top of these land areas are the nest buffer zones which were used to calculate the protected areas. The protected areas depicted in red are on the top of the layers to represent the most important part of the map.

Hierarchal Organization – I started my map with a title followed by a sub-title. This tells the map reader what the map is about and the area we are looking at in Alaska. Then I follow the next section with the company logo and labels for the two main map areas that we are looking at. Then follows the map, which is off-center to the right, however with the map elements on the left it leads the viewer to the map first and the legend second. The next section on the left is the text explaining what the viewer just saw with their eyes, followed by the legend and a picture of the Goshawk hawk. I feel that this hierarchy is very sequential and is appeasing to the map viewer in the order in which they should be reading the map. Then I placed the scale and scale bar below with the team who built the map and the date. The last section is the Coordinate system used to project the data and the map, as well as the sources from which the data came from.

Balance – Overall the map is well balanced with the map being on the right of the pdf and the text/legend being on the left of the pdf, providing a bit of asymmetrical symmetry as the two are not exactly apart from each other. The map has a nice flow from starting at the top, to going to the right and then left for the viewer.

For the water features in my map, I used a larger font for the San Francisco Bay and then s smaller font for the Golden Gate and then an even a smaller font for the Lake Merced water feature (16 size, 10 size, 8 size). All water features used a dark Blue Font on the light blue background of water polygons to provide a visual contrast that is easy to see. All the water feature placements are on top of the body of water features, except for the Lake Merced. I must move the text placement above the water feature due to the text blocking the lake. I did use a white background callout box to ensure visual contrast to the map viewer. All the water fonts used the font style Constantia Bold Italic to keep the water consistency throughout the map.

For all the park names I placed the text on top of the actual locations and used google maps to find these locations. I then made the font a 12-point Corbel font for all of the parks after I placed them in their perspective locations. I used a black color with a green halo to provide a visual pop on top of the green polygons which allowed the map reader to read the park labels (legibility). The park areas sit on top of the shoreline polygon. I made sure that the park labels were smaller than the San Francisco title and the popular general places on the map to provide some organizational hierarchy.

For all the general features I gave them a red text with a white halo. Some of these labels were cities which I made a 28-font size, and some of them were small areas or islands which received a 16 or 14 font size to provide hierarchy in population and importance to the map. The font style used was Constantia Bold and the labels are very legible to read due to the placement not blocking graphics and the visual colors of red and white on the map.

For all the landmarks in my map I used a White Font with a black outline since I only had one landmark to display. I made the font size small (9) and I used Corbel font. This allowed the landmark to stand out but also allows it to be legible with the blue ocean background behind the label. I placed the text to the right of the bridge but not on top of it so that the map reader can still see the bridge. The text was small to make sure the hierarchy of the landmark stays below the populated places and parkas on the map.

For all the Topographic features in my map I used the Visual contrast of green text boxes with dark green font to make the labels legible. I used Corbel regular font at a size of 8.5 and placed the labels in the general area of each location. However, since Twin Peaks was more significant, I made this label with no background box, but made the text bigger, with a dark green and white Halo. This shows hierarchy to the reader that this landmark has more visitors and more importance in my map. I placed this label right on the center of Twin Peaks to ensure that the map reader knew where the location was. I had to be careful as to not make this area of the map to busy. The text was Corbel Italic size 14.

For the map of Mexico on step 4, I used rivers symbology such as the malachite green/blueish color for my labels on the rivers. This complements the blueish hue of the river symbology. I also gave the labels a white halo outline so that they would be legible enough when being on top of the green background for the country of Mexico. 

I used the water line rivers label placement in the labeling tab on the Arc Pro labeling properties ribbon. This aligned the text along the bends and curves of each river, as if the text is following the river and aligned to each one. The font used was Constantia bold italic, and UI used a font size of point 8. I also had to go into the label properties, and made sure to uncheck stack labels, and I added some feature weight to the river labels. I removed duplicate labels, but I did not actually see nay rivers with the same name. I used the river placement as an offset curved with a 3-point offset from each river. Overall, I think the rivers turned out rather well and are legible to the map reader.

Let's upgrade this map!

The label options for the next version of the map of Mexico was very different. I had to adjust my rivers due to the amount of Mexico states and cities that I added to my map. I kept everything the same, as far as the river labels go with the color, font type, and halo around the text as well as the placement of the river labels (river placement offset with 3 points). The biggest change was going to a smaller font size of 4. This allows the labels to still be legible with a high-resolution pdf export but gives room to the state labels and city labels.

Next, I labeled the states of Mexico, making them a bit bigger in font using a Corbel font, bold, with a 5-point font size gray in color. I used the land parcel placement for the position of these labels as it would center them in the middle of every state. I made sure to uncheck stack labels as well. Then I labeled my cities of Mexico using red stars for the symbology of the points, and the text had an offset of 1 point from each star. The placement was set using the label engine of best position and again I made sure to uncheck stack labels. I used a gray text font of Constantia 6-point font to add some variety and make the labels more profound in size and style than the states. They also had a white halo around the letters to make them more profound and stand out to the viewer. The font was bold as well. I had to set up a SQL filter to not label the city of Mexico. This is because I exported Mexico City out as its own feature class to make its symbology stand out and the label different as well. I labeled the Mexico City label with the largest font size of 10 points as Constantia bold and blue in color with a white halo around the letters. This matches the symbology of the blue star for the capital city, making it very profound to the map reader. Again, I used best position placement and unchecked stack labels, and I also gave this label as large feature weight to make sure nothing would be on top of the label.

Last, I labeled the neighboring countries around Mexico to give the map reader some more information. I had to add another SQL filter under the label properties to label all countries but Mexico so that the country label would not interfere with the states, cities, and rivers. I felt it was unnecessary since the map title talks about the country of Mexico. 

Overall, I think the map labels and symbology is very legible considering all of the data on the map. With a high-resolution export, the pdf is readable, and the map reader can make out the names of rivers, cities, states, and the neighboring countries. 

The map also contains most of the map elements, such as a title, orientation, scale, creation date, sources for data, a legend, and labels for the map. The only thing maybe worth adding would be the bodies of water around the country of Mexico such as the oceans, but the map contains all the data needed for the map reader to understand the purpose of the map.