John Krygier has a must-read piece on the art of mapmaking accompanied by wonderful illustrations.
Examples are illustrated by Prof. Kei Kanazawa (heading the Working Group of the Japan Cartographers Association) in a chapter entitled “Techniques of Map Drawing and Lettering” in the out-of-print book Basic Cartography, Vol. 1 (International Cartographic Association, 1984, p. 45). These guidelines were developed for the pen and ink era of cartography, yet most are applicable to contemporary digital mapping.
What strikes me most is the somehow redundant notion that almost none
of those guiding principles are properly reflected in contemporary
online maps - including our own visualisation.
"The majority of these guidelines focus on peculiar details that when done well, the typical map user won’t even notice. They are among the fascinating hyper-minutiae of cartography."
From the manner of connecting line symbols corresponding to broken lines (first illustration) to crossing line symbols (last one), this is sheer beauty in detail.
All this is old knowledge and learned craftsmanship to cartographers and sadly diluted by the inability of contemporary online mapping tools to produce and display the "fineprint".
Yes, we know the reasons all too well - the more detail you put in, the bigger the map gets, the slower it builds etc pp - but wouldn't it be worthwhile going back some steps towards a more readable, more conceivable and much more aesthetic display?
Read the original article and zoom into the larger pictures - and a tip-on-the-hat to John Krygier for digging this out!
