Cartography – Page 12

Data Visualization’s ‘Dirty Little Secret’ and Choropleth Maps

Published on 13 April 2016 by Jonathan Crowe

The Washington Post’s Christopher Ingraham compares two choropleth maps of U.S. population growth: while they look rather different, they use the same data. “The difference between my map and Pew’s—again, they both use the exact same data set—underscores a bit of a dirty little secret in data journalism: Visualizing data is as much an art as a science. And seemingly tiny design decisions—where to set a color threshold, how many thresholds to set, etc.—can radically alter how numbers are displayed and perceived by readers.” [Andy Woodruff]

(Worth mentioning that this is exactly the sort of thing dealt with in Mark Monmonier’s How to Lie with Maps.)

Mapping Mountains

Published on 31 March 201631 March 2016 by Jonathan Crowe

Mapzen’s Peter Richardson takes us from elevation data to final shaded terrain map, showing us the steps taken to produce maps of mountainous terrain. [via]

The Design Details of Interactive Maps

Published on 31 March 2016 by Jonathan Crowe

Axis Maps’s Dave Heyman offers some advice on interactive map design—specifically, on the details, like colour usage and data interfaces. “Academic cartography provides good guidelines for thematic cartography, but interactivity and user-interface design are often ‘I know it when I see it’ type of things. What follows are 4 quick design concepts and techniques that can be applied in many situations to improve the look and feel of an interactive map.” [via]

New National Maps of Switzerland

Published on 30 March 2016 by Jonathan Crowe

Switzerland is updating its official map series. The new maps are digitally based and use new fonts, symbols and colours—railways, for example, are now in red. They replace the 1:25,000 series that dates back to the 1950s; all 247 sheets should be replaced by 2019. You can compare the old and new map designs on this interactive map (screencap above). [via]

Andy Woodruff: Beyond the Sea

Published on 30 March 201630 March 2016 by Jonathan Crowe

Inspired by maps that attempt to show what’s across the ocean when you look out from the shore (like this one and this one), Andy Woodruff applies a bit more rigour (and some geometry) to ask what’s across the ocean when you look out in a straight line perpendicular from the shore. (The other maps simply followed parallels of latitude.) Follow a straight line perpendicular from a point on the shore of Newfoundland and you get to Australia (via great circle), not France.

Women in Cartography (Part 4)

Published on 26 March 2016 by Jonathan Crowe

beek — Anna van Westerstee Beek, “Caarte vande landingh inde baay van Vigos als meede het inneemen van twee Casteels,” 1702. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division.

Laura Bliss and Carlyn Osborn continue their series of blog posts on women in cartographic history at CityLab and Worlds Revealed, respectively. Bliss looks at 20th century women, including illustrators Louise E. Jefferson and Ruth Belew as well as seafloor mapper Marie Tharp; Osborn looks at Dutch mapmaker Anna van Westerstee Beek (1657–1717).

Previously: Women in Cartography; Women in Cartography (Continued); Women in Cartography (Part 3).

Women in Cartography (Part 3)

Published on 25 March 2016 by Jonathan Crowe

willard-1826 — Emma Hart Willard, “Ninth Map or Map of 1826,” in A Series of Maps to Willard’s History of The United States (New York, 1829). Library of Congress Geography and Map Division.

CityLab’s Laura Bliss has a second post on women and cartography, this time focusing on the work of 19th-century women cartographers, geographers and educators in the United States. The Library of Congress’s map blog, Worlds Revealed, focuses on the work (and maps) of one of those women, Emma Hart Willard.

Previously: Women in Cartography; Women in Cartography (Continued).

Women in Cartography (Continued)

Published on 21 March 2016 by Jonathan Crowe

wac-cartographer On the Library of Congress’s map blog, a post about the women cartographers employed by the military and government during World War II—the so-called “Military Mapping Maidens.”

The Guardian has a brief item on ocean mapper Marie Tharp.

CityLab’s Laura Bliss presents a selection of maps by women mapmakers like Mary Ann Roque, the Haussard sisters and Shanawdithit, the last known member of the Beothuk people.

Previously: Women in Cartography.

Drawing Inspiration from Print Maps

Published on 17 March 201617 March 2016 by Jonathan Crowe

Saman Bemel Benrud, a designer at Mapbox, looks to print maps for inspiration. “I like looking at print maps because they remind me how far web map design has to go. Even an average print map involves a designer making thousands of small decisions about where to place individual features and how to kern and size each label,” he writes. “You can’t work like that with web maps that are global and zoomable.” Still, he provides some favourite design elements from paper maps; it’d be interesting to see how they might be rendered online.

Women in Cartography

Published on 8 March 201610 March 2016 by Jonathan Crowe

Something worth mentioning on International Women’s Day: the Boston Public Library’s exhibition, Women in Cartography: Five Centuries of Accomplishments, opened last October and runs until 26 March at the Central Library’s Leventhal Map Center. The exhibition can also be viewed online.

A few books about women in cartography:

Soundings: The Story of the Remarkable Woman Who Mapped the Ocean Floor by Hali Felt (Henry Holt, 2012), a biography of oceanographer Marie Tharp (Amazon, iBooks)
Mrs. P’s Journey: The Remarkable Story of the Woman Who Created the A-Z Map by Sarah Hartley (2001), a biography of A-Z Map Company founder Phyllis Pearsall (Amazon UK)
Map Worlds: A History of Women in Cartography by Will C. van den Hoonaard (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2013), a scholarly history of women mapmakers since the 16th century (Amazon)

women-cartography-books

Previously: Two More Map Books; Soundings: A Biography of Marie Tharp; The Urban Legend of Phyllis Pearsall; Phyllis Pearsall.

Maptorian Plus Kickstarter Campaign Launched

Published on 4 March 201618 August 2021 by Jonathan Crowe

Three years ago Alejandro Polanco (who blogs about maps in Spanish at La Cartoteca) launched Maptorian, a collection of editable vector maps aimed at graphic designers, journalists, teachers, students and others who need to make maps, know how to use applications like Adobe Illustrator but don’t have a GIS background. Now a Kickstarter campaign has launched for the improved-expanded-updated sequel, Maptorian Plus. Read Alejandro’s post (in Spanish).