Map Design 39
supplemental
Text and illustrations
There are elements of supplemental text that must be on the map. One example is a
source statement, especially for quantitative maps or maps based on another’s work.
This statement acts in much the same way as a footnote in a book. Ethics require that
such statements be included. Another piece of supplemental text is the name of the
projection; this is an aid to the reader and provides a key to where the map is most
accurate and what its limitations are. As with other elements, they are placed to cre-
ate a pleasing well-balanced composition.
With the ease of manipulating photographs and text by computer, it has become
increasingly popular to add large blocks of text and photographs to maps and atlases.
ORANGE
COUNTY
San Juan
Capistrano
Laguna
Beach
Huntington
Beach
Santa Ana
Anaheim
fIgURe 2.25.
General location inset. The inset is used to provide the reader with the broad
setting for an unfamiliar area.
Rocky
Lake
1st St.
2nd St.
3rd St.
North St.
State St.
South St.
Capitol
Building
Capital City
H
wy
2
fIgURe 2.26.
An inset can be used to focus on an area with an enlargement.
40
MaP Design
These can be effective, but should be used with care. The danger is including too
much “stuff” on the page and losing the map in the process. Some modern atlases
have pages containing more text than map. Viewers have mixed opinions on this prac-
tice. The key is to remember the focus and purpose of the map. Will the additional
text add to the discourse or will it be visual clutter? Do the photographs illustrate the
map subject or are they extraneous? There were other periods in cartographic history
when decorative elements were included on maps. The
seventeenth-century Blaeu
atlases include drawings around each map page that showed dress styles for differ-
ent cities or landmark buildings; other maps of the 17th and 18th centuries included
allegorical figures. Nineteenth-century atlases frequently included vignettes showing
historic events or local scenery. Figure 2.27 is a hand-drawn map with pen-and-ink
sketches of buildings.
Frames
and neat Lines
The
neat line is a line that frames and separates the map from other information; the
frame is a border around the entire map. These lines are shown on the generic map
in Figure 2.15. There is some debate about the use of frames and neat lines. Many
like the “free” look a frameless map gives to the page, others feel that a frame adds
stability to the page. To a large extent this is a personal preference, but is governed by
fIgURe 2.27.
Drawings or photographs can add interest to a map if not overused. Hand-
drawn map of part of Virginia with pen-and-ink drawings of Monticello. Courtesy of Nor-
man J. W. Thrower.
Map Design 41
where the map will be reproduced, who will use it, and the guidelines of the company
or agency creating the map or map series.
