What happens if the name of a city overlaps its marker? What happens if the name of a river intersects its shoreline on a diagonal? What happens if the name of one town overlaps another? All of these situations are…
Start by opening a small map, then turn off every color except gray. Then figure out which layer carries the main message. This could be a layer that shows population groups, land use, elevation bands, or something else. Bring back…
Line weight defines how prominent a line object looks on a map. A fat, dark line stands out, whereas a fine or light-colored line recedes into the background. Lines can represent roads, administrative boundaries, and rivers, but they have different…
Picture a map with a bold red boundary, equally weighted road lines, deep blue rivers, heavy type for place names, and multiple hues of saturated thematic data. It might have all the right information, but the reader won’t know where…