The his world population map illustrates other guidelines (fig.3.8a) the ocean is blue, but the mapmaker has disregarded the guideline to reserve dark, bold colors for highlighting important areas. The red-orange graduated color serves to highlight the population but contrasts noisily with the dark blue. The latitude-longitude lines, which are not the focus of the map, crisscross the population data and create a busy feeling. Let’s see how a redesign can improve this map.
In figure3.8b, a light blue color for the oceans instantly creates a more relaxed, agreeable atmosphere. The latitude-longitude lines have been deemphasized by making them gray and drawing them ‘behind the continents instead of on top of them. The graduated color shades contrast nicely with the ocean, are brown / orange to suggest earth, and are predominantly light. The darker populous countries are naturally emphasized.
Fig .3.8. A map of the world. (a) Dark colors and busy lines give this map a heavy and chaotic feel. (b) the pastel colors and deemphasized graticules are far more pleasant.
The layout of the legend often reveals the difference between an amateur and a professional map. The legend in figure 3.9a illustrates the kind of effort to avoid. No self-respecting cartographer would use the population classes shown here, a jumble of random numbers. The file name cities. Shp makes a poor heading – the reader does not care what the name of the file is. the PoP 1990 label might not be understood by some people as population data. the outline crowds the text. This legend demonstrates some classic mistakes made by beginners of an amateur in a hurry.
The redesign in figure3.9b has replaced the layer aand attribute names with more understandable labels. The class numbers have been formatted to three significant digits, and the thousands separator has been formatted to three significant digits, and the thousands separator has been included for additional clarity. Finally, the cartographer increased the gap between the legend neatline and its contents. This legend is clear, balanced, and professional.
CHOSSING COORDINATE SYSTEMS
In chapter 1, we introduced the idea of a coordinate system and learned that data may be stored in different coordinate systems such as UTM or state plane. In chapter2 we discovered that all layers within a data frame are projected on the fly to match the coordinate system of the data