Cartography and Visualisation III: Map Elements

This is gonna be a short post. It'll cover the essential elements of a map - what most maps should have within the "area". However, it is subject to the requirements of the publication/ report.

This is Part III of the four-part instalment on: 

1) projections,
2) geographical phenomenon and data representation,
3) map elements,
4) map design (colour, typography, planar organisation and hierarchical organisation)

Just a teaser to begin with: WHY MAPS ARE COOL

Ok back to business:

Map was made by myself for an assignment.

Title/Subtitle: for a concise description of the map’s theme (not wordy, no abbreviations). This can be replaced with a caption, if in the case of a report.

Legend: defines all of the thematic symbols of a map; symbols that are self-explanatory or not directly related to map’s theme are normally omitted

Frame line: encloses the entire map and neat line: encloses the mapped area

Data source, credits: where the data for the thematic map is obtained, base information normally omitted

Scale: representative fraction of the map to reality and could be a verbal or bar scale. However, whether to use a scale might depend on whether the map is equal-area or not. If it is not equal area, then putting the scale bar is meaningless.

Orientation represented by north arrow, graticule. However, whether to use a north arrow might depend on whether the angles varies throughout the map. If it does significantly, then adding the north arrow is pointless.

Inset: a smaller map included within the context of a larger map

Place names/ labelling