A neat line is simply a graphic line placed on the layout. These lines can be used singly, in tandem, or in groups, and can consist of simple lines or boxes. A large neat line around the entire layout is referred to as a page border and is discussed, fittingly, in the “Page Border” section preceding this one.
FIGURE 3.10
When two scales are required, place them close together like this.
FIGURE 3.11
A scale bar coupled with a representative fraction.
FIGURE 3.12
Other scale types can also be depicted on the layout including square-area and buffer distance.
Layout Design 41
The purpose of a neat line is to explicitly separate elements to provide an organized look. Sometimes the same visual relief and separation can be achieved without neat lines by simply utilizing the empty space between elements for this purpose. However, through experimentation with your elements as you place them on the page, you may feel that they need more separation than the empty space provides. For example, a poster-sized layout with three major sections in the architectural margin element box (which is itself a form of a neat line) may benefit from the use of a short vertical bar between sections. The reason a short vertical bar would be used instead of, say, a box around each section, is to reduce visual clutter but still provide the required separation (see Figure 3.13).
Placement: One neat line placement illustration is in the Legend section of this chapter (see Figure 3.7), which shows a neat line placed above and below a legend in order to separate it from other elements on the layout. Experimenting with different places to put neat lines on your own layout, as well as getting ideas from existing layouts, will instantly increase the quality of your finished product. In fact, even though neat lines are on the lowest end of the information spectrum for map elements, they are on the high end of the scale of the design spectrum for layouts. It is these little touches that can make a map look like it was created by a professional with years of experience. Although be warned that it can also take years (slight exaggeration) to place, re-place, and tweak these so that they look just right.
Style: Neat lines are almost always black or dark gray when placed on lighter-colored backgrounds. The thickness of each line needs to be commensurate with the importance of the information it is enclosing or separating, as well as the total layout size. Neat lines are drawn as boxes or simple lines. If using lines, and they are intended to meet up with other lines, ensure that they join together neatly by using a snapping feature and by zooming in to the largest extent to double-check the results. Sometimes what looks like a snapped line winds up printing out as an off-shoot, like the top example in Figure 3.14 instead of properly snapped like the bottom example in Figure 3.14. Conversely, ensure that any neat line that is not purposefully intended to meet up with another line is far enough away from all other lines so that it does not look as if it was supposed to be connected.
FIGURE 3.13
The architectural margin boxes shown here organize the margin elements into the same three sections but separate them differently. The top one achieves the same goal of visual separation but with much less visual clutter than the bottom one.
42 GIS Cartography: A Guide to Effective Map Design
Another symptom of neat lines not ending up quite so “neat” as intended is when they show up as jagged lines on the printed page. The cause of the zigzag is the software’s habit of starting and ending a line at exactly the start and end points that were clicked when the user created the line; if those points are not on the same axis, a jagged line is created. Use guidelines and rulers when possible along with snapping functionality to avoid this often undetected issue.