Default legends produced in the GIS are a great way to begin production of the
legend but ought to be further manipulated prior to map publication. First of all,
make sure there isn’t too much space between the items and their labels. Also,
if the legend is describing a gradient of values (choropleth color scheme), then
those items will look more professional if they are touching each other rather than
separated by white space. Don’t forget that color gradients can be depicted vertically (see Figure 3.4) or horizontally (see Figure 3.5).