Let’s Talk Cartography!Stephanie Oliver – Boulder County Transportation

GIS in the Rockies, September 20, 2017

“Good cartography has been

figured out, and we don't

want to take steps

backward.” - Andy Woodruff

“Learn the rules, then break some.”

Bad Maps

• Title

• North arrow

• Scale bar

• Grid or graticule

• Legend

• Labels

• Location Map

• Notes about projection, coordinate system, datum,

data source(s) and any other pertinent details

• Who produced the map

Standard cartographic elements

What is the purpose of your map?

Who is the audience for your map?

Treat Maps as… ART

Denver Southbound

by Ed Fairburn

Chroma

Value

“As for the matter of colour, what may be observed is simply without end. Those who have had no training in the way to see colour nearly always

deceive themselves into thinking that they see it as they know it is locally, whereas the trained eye sees colour due to relation and as it truly appears to be.”

– Gertrude Jekyll, Home and Garden

Color Design for the Color Vision Impaired – Jenny and Kelso, 2007

Color-blind readability

Protanopia Deuteranopia

Red Yellow/Green Blue/Purple

Color Design for the Color Vision Impaired – Jenny and Kelso, 2007

Color-blind readability

ArcGIS Online – Light Grey CanvasMapBox – MoonlightMapBox – Light Grey CanvasMapBox – North Star

FONTS

Serif vs Sans Serif

Suggested fonts for readability:

• Comic Sans• Helvetica• Courier

• Arial

• Verdana

Can you read this? No? Well, neither can your project manager.

*sobbing uncontrollably *

“Can we change the size of the map?”

• Resize the map in you current MXD

• Start with a new MXD

Reference Scale

Bookmarks

• Capture your favorite map extent

• Export and import bookmarks

• Can be used for QA/QC and shared among

colleagues

• Or…use it to rebuild your MXD!

Style Sheets

Templates

Save your template as an MXD

Load it using the Change Layout button

Note: MXT format is still supported but the file can be unstable

Cannot create new MXT files since ArcGIS 10.1

Annotation

• Advanced labeling technique

• Stored in a database or in map

• Scale dependent

• Not practical for every map

Fake it to make it…

PRETTY!

• Tricking the system

• Emulate someone else’s design,

standards, or symbology

• Using duplicate or “dummy” data

http://tinyurl.com/ArrowsInAnno

http://tinyurl.com/ContoursInArcGIS

Fonts:

• Time New Roman

• Calibri• Arial

• Myriad Pro

• Minion Pro

Beautiful Maps

https://earth.nullschool.net/

THANK YOU!

Special thanks to:

Kevin Sheehan – Manuscript Maps

http://www.manuscriptmaps.com/

Dave Watson – Boulder County Transportation

Boulder County Parks and Open Space

Stephanie Oliver

soliver@bouldercounty.org

http://tinyurl.com/LetsTalkCartography