Cartography

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‘A Huge Annual Trawl of Revision’
The Independent’s “I Want Your Job” feature features a cartographer — namely, Iain MacDonald of Collins Geo. Swoon at the exciting life of a cartographer: tedious painstaking research! No, seriously: after reading this I want to be a cartographer; keep… »
Posted on Thursday, September 18, 2008 at 7:22 PM
Categories: Cartography, Industry News
TypeBrewer
TypeBrewer is a site about font choices in mapmaking. “TypeBrewer offers a quick and easy way to explore typographic alternatives and see the impact that various elements of type have on the overall look and feel of a map…. »
Posted on Thursday, August 28, 2008 at 8:32 PM
Categories: Cartography
David Imus’s Map of Oregon
When we last heard about cartographer David Imus, he was getting rave reviews for his map of Alaska. Now the revised edition of his map of Oregon is getting similarly favourable reviews, at least if this article in today’s Eugene… »
Posted on Sunday, August 10, 2008 at 5:21 PM
Categories: Cartography
Map Exaggeration
Examples of exaggeration in maps. The problem is that the maps’ pixels are larger than the points they depict: space junk appears larger, entire neighbourhoods seem to be under foreclosure and — in the above case, a map of… »
Posted on Sunday, June 29, 2008 at 7:47 AM
Categories: Cartography
ScapeToad: Cartogram Software
ScapeToad is software for making cartograms. André Ourednik, its development supervisor, writes: “ScapeToad is a cross-platform, open-source application written in Java, designed and using the ESRI Shapefile format for input and output. It also exports maps in SVG format and… »
Posted on Monday, May 19, 2008 at 8:58 PM
Categories: Cartography, Software
Inset Maps
The ESRI Mapping Center has some guidelines for the design of inset maps…. »
Posted on Wednesday, March 5, 2008 at 1:41 PM
Categories: Cartography
Topographic Map Symbols
Topographic map symbols for historic topographic maps: “Presented here is a collection of symbols used on USGS Topographic Maps printed from the late 1890s. The styles of the symbols have changed dramatically since this time, and the beginning of their… »
Posted on Wednesday, March 5, 2008 at 1:37 PM
Categories: Antique Maps, Cartography, Topo Maps & Trails
The History of the Cartogram
John Krygier looks at the history of the cartogram, beginning with an “apportionment map” from 1911 that he says is “one of the earliest cartograms I have seen” and continuing with a discussion of the history of the term:… »
Posted on Monday, February 25, 2008 at 8:32 AM
Categories: Cartography
Designed Maps
The ESRI Mapping Center blog reports on a new book from ESRI Press: Designed Maps: A Sourcebook for GIS Users. It’s by Cynthia Brewer, who also wrote Designing Better Maps: A Guide for GIS Users (see previous entry). The… »
Posted on Monday, February 25, 2008 at 8:15 AM
Categories: Books, Cartography, GIS
A Cartographic Scriber Writes
Ralph Jackson writes, “I was a cartographic scriber in the United States Air Force a few decades back. I was quite fast and accurate with this skill. Is scribing still used anywhere in map production today or has it gone… »
Posted on Sunday, February 24, 2008 at 11:33 AM
Categories: Cartography, Questions
Waldo Tobler
Waldo Tobler, according to his Wikipedia entry, coined the first law of geography in 1970: “Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things.” Now a retired geography professor at the University of… »
Posted on Sunday, August 19, 2007 at 8:49 PM
Categories: Cartography
Nautical Map Symbols
On the Making Maps: DIY Cartography blog, John Krygier has a post about nautical symbols, both past (circa 1957) and present…. »
Posted on Monday, July 30, 2007 at 8:18 PM
Categories: Cartography, Nautical
Tom Conoscenti, Brooklyn Cartographer
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle profiles local city planner Tom Conoscenti, who “could easily be considered the Brooklyn cartographer these days. As a city planner with the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, Conoscenti is responsible for producing telling and informative maps of all… »
Posted on Saturday, July 28, 2007 at 4:19 PM
Categories: Cartography
CartoBlog
Krygier and Wood are also involved, as two of several authors, in another cartography blog, CartoBlog, which seems to flow from the CartoTalk forum. The most recent entry, Allelopathic Maps and Google’s “My Maps”, is a good one: it argues… »
Posted on Wednesday, July 18, 2007 at 9:32 PM
Categories: Blogs, Cartography
Mapping 2007
Mapping 2007, the British Cartographic Society’s annual symposium, takes place at the University of Chester this September. The agenda includes a one-day cartography workshop for beginners as part of the Society’s Better Mapping campaign (see previous entry). Press release…. »
Posted on Wednesday, June 27, 2007 at 1:00 PM
Categories: Cartography, Conferences
Imhof’s Cartographic Relief Presentation
Next month, ESRI Press is reprinting Eduard Imhof’s classic Cartographic Relief Presentation, which was first published as Kartographische Geländedarstellung in 1965 and translated into English in 1982; it’s been out of print since then. Press release: GISuser.com, Directions. Update,… »
Posted on Wednesday, May 30, 2007 at 11:11 AM
Categories: Books, Cartography
National Geographic Cartography Award Winner
The National Geographic Society sponsors several awards for cartography students through cartographic societies. 2007’s winner of the National Geographic Award in Mapping, awarded to undergraduate and Master’s-level students through the Association of American Geographers, is Cassie Hansen of the University… »
Posted on Thursday, April 19, 2007 at 12:57 PM
Categories: Cartography
Generating Flow Maps
Flow maps show movement from one location to another; migration maps are probably the most commonly encountered example. Researchers at Stanford University have developed a method to generate flow maps by computer; prior to this, they say, most flow… »
Posted on Tuesday, February 20, 2007 at 9:49 PM
Categories: Cartography
Modern Cartographer, Hand-drawn Maps
KVOA, a Tucson, Arizona television station, has the story of a Flagstaff cartographer, Alex DiNatale, who has reverted to drawing maps by hand, in the style of late 19th-century surveyors’ maps: “This is like a lost art,” DiNatale said. “It’s… »
Posted on Monday, February 12, 2007 at 6:18 PM
Categories: Cartography
Allen Carroll Profiled
The Washington Post had a brief profile of the National Geographic Society’s chief cartographer, Allen Carroll, earlier this week; if you think it reads a little funny, note that this was published in the paper’s children’s section. Via GeoCarta and… »
Posted on Friday, February 2, 2007 at 5:59 PM
Categories: Cartography
A Book Roundup
Much book-related news has been accumulating over here; past time I shared it. Surveying, Mapping and GIS reviews Dava Sobel’s Longitude, a book about John Harrison, who discovered how to determine longitude. I think I need to read this book…. »
Posted on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 at 2:57 PM
Categories: Antique Maps, Astronomy, Books, Cartography, Google Earth, Historical Maps
Africa South
“I have produced a relief map of my part of the world using SRTM30 in Global Mapper — it is my first attempt at published cartography,” writes Chris Berens of South Africa. It’s an interesting map that eschews national… »
Posted on Monday, January 15, 2007 at 5:35 PM
Categories: Cartography
Recent Obituaries
The deaths of the following people associated with cartography were reported recently: Tom Devine (1927-2006) spent 32 years working as a cartographer for the USGS; he was a mountain climber and stereographic photographer in his off-hours. Via Maps-L. Bradford Washburn… »
Posted on Saturday, January 13, 2007 at 7:40 PM
Categories: Cartography, Obituaries, Topo Maps & Trails
Marie Tharp and Plate Tectonics
The New York Times Magazine’s year-end retrospective on deaths of notable people in 2006 includes a profile of Marie Tharp, the oceanographic cartographer who died earlier this year (see previous entry). David Tiley places her career struggles in context:… »
Posted on Tuesday, January 2, 2007 at 7:41 AM
Categories: Cartography, Earth Sciences, Obituaries
OUP Year in Geography
Ben Keene, the editor of Oxford University Press’s atlas program, looks at the geographic changes over the past year — new parks, new countries, old cities with new names — that cartographers will have to deal with when they update… »
Posted on Tuesday, November 21, 2006 at 11:12 AM
Categories: Cartography
Better Mapping 2006
In addition to the Map Designers conference next month in Glasgow (see previous entry), the British Cartographic Society is running Better Mapping 2006, four day-long seminars on map design: London, Oct. 30; Cardiff, Nov. 7; Liverpool, Nov. 23 and Edinburgh,… »
Posted on Friday, October 20, 2006 at 12:45 PM
Categories: Cartography, Conferences
Maps and Society Lectures
The program for the 2006-2007 series of “Maps and Society” lectures at the Warburg Institute, University of London has been posted; they take place one or two Thursdays a month and are free to attend. Via MapHist. See previous entry:… »
Posted on Tuesday, October 3, 2006 at 7:29 AM
Categories: Antique Maps, Cartography, Conferences
Upcoming Conferences: Garrett Lectures; Map Designers
The theme for the fifth biennial Virginia Garrett Lectures on the History of Cartography is “Mapping the Sacred: Belief and Religion in the History of Cartography.” They take place on October 7 (lecture program) at the University of Texas at… »
Posted on Monday, September 25, 2006 at 8:41 AM
Categories: Antique Maps, Cartography, Conferences
National Park Service Map Symbols
Symbols and map patterns from National Park Service maps are available for download, in PDF and Adobe Illustrator formats. Potentially useful for anyone making maps. Via Kottke…. »
Posted on Tuesday, September 12, 2006 at 3:17 PM
Categories: Cartography
Islamic Cartography Blog
Tarek Kahlaoui, who is working on a Ph.D. dissertation on Islamic cartography in the 13th to 16th centuries at the University of Pennsylvania, has just started a blog on the subject that will include, over time, a bibliography of the… »
Posted on Sunday, August 27, 2006 at 7:12 AM
Categories: Antique Maps, Blogs, Cartography
Marie Tharp
Columbia University reports the death yesterday of Marie Tharp, an oceanographic cartographer who worked on the first world map of the ocean floor; she also co-discovered the Mid-Atlantic Ridge’s rift valley. She was 86. A pioneer of modern oceanography,… »
Posted on Thursday, August 24, 2006 at 6:19 PM
Categories: Cartography, Earth Sciences, Obituaries
Review: How to Lie with Maps
How to Lie with Maps (Second Edition) by Mark Monmonier University of Chicago Press, 1996. Softcover, 220 pp. ISBN 0-226-53421-9 While reading this modern classic by Syracuse University geography professor Mark Monmonier (see previous entry), I was struck by how… »
Posted on Monday, May 29, 2006 at 8:34 AM
Categories: Book Reviews, Cartography, Map Projections
Question: Software for Cartograms?
S. P. Low from the University of Singapore, looking for software to make cartograms, writes: We are working on a project that attempts to track the global construction market using cartograms, such as those rectangular cartograms used by the World… »
Posted on Thursday, April 27, 2006 at 6:59 AM
Categories: Cartography, Questions, Software
More on the Four-Colour Theorem
Another page about the four-colour theorem, this one focusing on a new geometrical proof of the theorem (well, relatively new — the page is dated 1995). Lots of math, no maps. If you recall, the four-colour theorem says that you… »
Posted on Monday, April 17, 2006 at 2:50 PM
Categories: Cartography
Book Review: Making Maps by Krygier and Wood
Making Maps: A Visual Guide to Map Design for GIS by John Krygier and Denis Wood Guilford Press, 2005. Softcover, 303 pp. ISBN 1-59385-200-2 I love this book. It’s just so neat. Although Making Maps is aimed at a GIS… »
Posted on Wednesday, March 29, 2006 at 9:21 AM
Categories: Book Reviews, Cartography, GIS
Cartograms from Worldmapper
Worldmapper is a collection of cartograms developed using a new algorithm (creating cartograms — “density-equalizing maps” — is extremely complicated; more details here). There are 56 cartograms on the site so far, all global in focus, with more to… »
Posted on Friday, March 24, 2006 at 1:47 PM
Categories: Cartography
Link Roundup for February 7
Significant Blogspot outages rendered several favourite mapping blogs unavailable for portions of last weekend, including Cartography and GeoCarta. The city of North Platte, Nebraska, its police department, and surrounding Lincoln County all use different GIS and CAD software to generate… »
Posted on Tuesday, February 7, 2006 at 7:07 AM
Categories: Blogs, Cartography, GIS, Groups & Societies, Triangulations (Links)
Link Roundup for January 14
Ben Keene, the editor of Oxford University Press’s atlas program (see previous entry), looks at the changes in geography he had to deal with in 2005 (via World Hum). MapQuest has inadvertently left Edmonton off a map of Canadian cities… »
Posted on Saturday, January 14, 2006 at 8:32 AM
Categories: Blogs, Books, Cartography, Education, Mapping Errors, Satellite & Aerial, Software
A Roundup: Society, Journal, Blog, Podcast
A few quick links for the Map Site Directory: Via MapHist, I’ve learned about the British Cartographic Society and its journal, The Cartographic Journal. ArcDeveloper is a new blog that should be of interest to ESRI GIS developers. Via Spatially… »
Posted on Sunday, December 18, 2005 at 5:09 PM
Categories: Blogs, Cartography, GIS, Groups & Societies, Podcasts & Audio, Scholarly Journals
Copyright Traps
Publishers frequently use “copyright traps” to prove that someone plagiarized their work. Without evidence of the actual act of plagiarism, it’s difficult to prove that someone publishing a rival phone book, dictionary or encyclopedia didn’t just copy material wholesale from… »
Posted on Friday, November 25, 2005 at 9:51 AM
Categories: Cartography, Copyright, Mapping Errors
ICHC 2005 in Budapest
To follow up on my previous post, here’s the home page for this year’s ICHC, held last July in Budapest, which its coordinator, Zsolt Török, wanted me to point you to…. »
Posted on Thursday, November 24, 2005 at 10:19 AM
Categories: Antique Maps, Cartography, Conferences
A Font for Maps: Cisalpin
Cisalpin is a relatively new font specially designed as a standard font for maps; its page on Linotype, in addition to being the place to buy the font, outlines some of the typographic requirements of cartography. Via Cartography…. »
Posted on Wednesday, November 9, 2005 at 1:18 PM
Categories: Cartography
USGS to Outsource Mapmaking?
FCW.com: “The U.S. Geological Survey, which issues most official maps, is considering outsourcing or eliminating most of its major mapping technology operations because commercial remote-sensing products and other advanced technologies have replaced field surveyors.”… »
Posted on Monday, October 17, 2005 at 8:26 AM
Categories: Cartography
Jack Joyce Profile Focuses on Mapmaking
The Georgia Straight, Vancouver’s alternative paper, has a profile of Jack Joyce, who runs International Travel Maps and Books, a map store with a publishing arm. The article focuses exclusively on the latter, and, more specifically, on how maps are… »
Posted on Friday, August 26, 2005 at 9:00 AM
Categories: Cartography, Dealers & Stores
Another Look at UTM
John Resig writes, “It seems to have been a while since The Map Room talked about Universe Transverse Mercator. I’ve written up my experences learning this alternative coordinate system along with a brief overview of how the system works. For… »
Posted on Tuesday, July 19, 2005 at 10:49 PM
Categories: Cartography
Journal of Maps: No Ordnance Survey Data
Another unfortunate result of the Ordnance Survey’s copyright on its mapping data: the Journal of Maps announced last week that, because of the Ordnance Survey’s restrictive licencing, “we are currently unable to accept any maps based upon OS data.” (See… »
Posted on Wednesday, April 27, 2005 at 11:33 AM
Categories: Cartography, GIS
Journal of Maps
Richard writes to draw our attention to a new online scholarly journal, the Journal of Maps, which launched last year and had their first issue this month. From their about page: The Journal of Maps is a new inter-disciplinary online,… »
Posted on Sunday, January 30, 2005 at 10:52 AM
Categories: Cartography, GIS, Scholarly Journals
Shaded Relief
I’ve been meaning to post Tom Patterson’s Shaded Relief site for a while: this is a massive site that deals with the technical issues of creating relief maps. Way too technical for me, but the detail is absolutely fascinating. From… »
Posted on Thursday, January 13, 2005 at 9:25 PM
Categories: Cartography, Software
The Best Map of Alaska?
The Anchorage Daily News profiles cartographer David Imus, whose new, highly detailed map of Alaska he modestly calls, as the article puts it, “the best overall map of the state ever made.” Based on the article, which goes into some… »
Posted on Monday, December 27, 2004 at 11:08 AM
Categories: Cartography
Muslim Cartographers
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has a profile of Fuat Sezgin, the director of the Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Science at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main. He’s just released three new books on cartographers during… »
Posted on Friday, October 15, 2004 at 9:30 PM
Categories: Cartography
Garrett Lectures News Coverage
The Shorthorn Online covers last weekend’s Garrett Lectures at the University of Texas at Arlington (see previous entry)…. »
Posted on Tuesday, October 5, 2004 at 4:02 PM
Categories: Cartography
Garrett Lectures
If you’re in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, or will be this Friday and Saturday, you might want to check out the two days of cartography lectures at the University of Texas at Arlington: on Friday it’s the Fourth Biennial Virginia… »
Posted on Monday, September 27, 2004 at 9:09 AM
Categories: Cartography
Cartograms and Map Distortions
Further to my earlier post on proportional election maps, Science News had an article last month about the art of map distortion in general. Using the example of using a map to show the incidence of a particular disease, the… »
Posted on Sunday, September 26, 2004 at 9:35 PM
Categories: Cartography
Map Readability
Making Maps Easy to Read is “a research project that set out to discover some of the factors that make maps easy to read and to use.” Relief, symbols and typography are some of the issues explored. The pages contain… »
Posted on Friday, August 20, 2004 at 11:42 AM
Categories: Cartography
History of Maps
The History of Maps, a course reading from Geography 101 at California State University, Northridge (via muxway)…. »
Posted on Wednesday, May 12, 2004 at 9:38 PM
Categories: Cartography

Note: Entries from 2003 were not categorized and will not appear in the category archives. Please consult the monthly archives.