[OKGIS] Book(s) on beautifying maps

[Chad Cooper]

Let me elaborate on using Illy and MapPublisher. I use it primarily to
make 'cartoony' maps for corporate PowerPoint presentations - they need
to be very high quality, but yet not very technical - but well labeled.
I havent done much with vector data, but what I have (DRGs, hillshades)
looks _very_ good both onscreen and in print coming out of Illy/MP. One
problem I have is importing large shps with lots of attributes. The
folks at Avenza will tell you to delete as many unneeded fields as
possible from your shps before you import them into Illy, and they are
right. If I import a well point dataset with 160K records and about 30
fields, it will choke Illy - if I delete most of the fields, then it
works like a charm. You have to keep in mind that using really large
datasets pushes the limits of what Illy is intended for. Another
downside is the steep learning curve of Illy - I'm constantly learning
new things, but it's a great program and very fun to use, and also a
graphics -industry standard, so learning it sure isnt going to hurt
you...

Also, I talked with an Avenza rep at a conference and he informed me
that connecting to GDBs is in the works, which will increase the value
of MP dramatically for GISers, at least IMO.

HTH

Chad

------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------
Chad Cooper
GIS Analyst
Arkoma Conventional Group
Southwestern Energy Company
Fayetteville, Arkansas
479.582.8549(o)
479.530.8416(c)

 

-----Original Message-----
From: okgis-bounces at gis.gis.ou.edu [mailto:okgis-bounces at gis.gis.ou.edu]
On Behalf Of David.J.Morris-1 at ou.edu
Sent: Friday, July 27, 2007 7:42 AM
To: Oklahoma GIS Community
Subject: Re: [OKGIS] Book(s) on beautifying maps

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


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