[OKGIS] Book(s) on beautifying maps

[Aaron Champion]

All:

Thanks for the advice.  MAPublisher looks rather nice, as does Canvas
X.  I'll also probably order the book that David suggested.  I have
Illustrator, so that will make ponying up $400 for either of the
aforementioned packages easier.

Todd:

I have been exporting individual shapefiles from the data view.  There
are some tricks with transparency, overlays, and layouts that I'm
unable to implement in ArcGIS.  I was hoping it was a piece of
functionality I was overlooking but after a chat with ESRI yesterday
afternoon it appears that's not the case.

---
Aaron Champion
Association of Central Oklahoma Governments
Transportation Planning and Data Services
21 East Main Street
Oklahoma City, OK 73104-2405
P: (405) 234-2264   F: (405) 234-2200

On 7/27/07, David.J.Morris-1 at ou.edu <David.J.Morris-1 at ou.edu> wrote:
> Hello Aaron,
>
>      My name is David Morris and I am a Geography student at OU.  I have several books on cartography that I can recommend for producing better looking maps.  They are:
>
> "Designing Better Maps: A Guide for GIS Users" by Cynthia Brewer, published by ESRI Press.
> "How Maps Work" by Alan M. MacEachren, published by The Guilford Press
> "Thematic Cartography and Geographic Visualization" by Terry A. Slocum, et al., published by Pearson/Prentice Hall.  This is a text book but it contains a lot of good information on map creation.
>
> One of the respondents to your email suggested using Adobe Illustrator as one tool for creation of better looking maps after they have been created in ArcGIS.  I believe he is correct in suggesting the use of that program.  Rand/McNally uses it to create their finished map products along with ArcGIS.  Unfortunately I don't have experience with Illustrator to advise on how best to use it.
>
> I hope this helps.
>
> David Morris
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Aaron Champion <achampion at gmail.com>
> Date: Thursday, July 26, 2007 2:30 pm
> Subject: [OKGIS] Book(s) on beautifying maps
> To: Oklahoma GIS Community <okgis at gis.gis.ou.edu>
>
>
> > All:
> >
> > I had a question about improving the aesthetic quality of maps.  I've
> > read Tufte's "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information" several
> > times, but I'm more curious now about books specifically dealing with
> > techniques on beautifying maps created in ArcGIS.  Typically my work
> > flow is to build the map in ArcGIS, turn on a layer at a time and
> > export it as a transparent tiff or png, and do the final touchups in
> > Photoshop.  There are several reasons as to why I dislike this method.
> >
> > Is anyone aware of any books on this topic, or has ESRI and the GIS
> > community still not clued in to the importance of visually-pleasing
> > (and accurate) maps?
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Aaron Champion
> > Association of Central Oklahoma Governments
> > Transportation Planning and Data Services
> > 21 East Main Street
> > Oklahoma City, OK 73104-2405
> > P: (405) 234-2264   F: (405) 234-2200
>