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1.1.7. Good and Bad Examples

In this unit we present a few maps that we found in the Internet in the year 2006. They do not follow the cartographic representation rules that we presented in this unit. (2003) recommend a few suggestion for improvement that they realised in the second maps.

City map of Aarau

The screen shot on the left stems from an interactive map of the Canton Aargau of Switzerland. As you may see the base map is a scanned paper map. For computer screen, information density is definitely too high. The map on the right applies antialiasing (see lesson Computer Graphics) and is strongly generalized: the rail yard is much simpler and unimportant streets disappeared. (Räber et al. 2003)

City map        of AarauCity map of Aarau (Kanton Aargau) City map of        AarauCity map of Aarau (Räber et al. 2003)

City map of Zurich

The next two images show a city map of Zurich available from MapQuest in the year 2002 (left) and 2006 (right). The maps are based on data that is mainly used for car navigation systems, and automatically derived from a database. The text labels of the newer version on the right have been improved significantly. Each street is labeled once (e.g. Gessnerallee along the western river); all streets of the most important class are labeled with a bigger font (e.g. Rämistrasse in the east). Additionally, the quality of the font has been improved as well (text labels are not framed anymore). (Räber et al. 2003)

City        map of        Zurich 2002 (Map content (c) 2007 by MapQuest, Inc and NavTeq. Used with permission)City map of Zurich 2002 (Map content (c) 2007 by MapQuest, Inc and NavTeq. Used with permission) (MapQuest) City map        of Zurich 2007 (Map content (c) 2007 by MapQuest, Inc and NavTeq. Used with permission)City map of Zurich 2007 (Map content (c) 2007 by MapQuest, Inc and NavTeq. Used with permission) (MapQuest)
remark

The image on the right is much better than the one on the left, but it is still not perfect. Watch carefully the image on the right a second time. Which improvements would you apply? After having thought about it, have a look at the solutions.

(Click here for more information)

Overview of Europe

MapQuest's overview of Europe on the left depicts apparently arbitrarily selected localities. A lot of country names are lacking. The relief shading used by MapQuest insufficiently portrays the geomorphological forms. The map on the right corrects these obvious drawbacks, and additionally displays borders with simpler and less detailed lines. (Räber et al. 2003)

Overview of Europe (Map content (c) 2007 by MapQuest, Inc and NavTeq. Used with permission)Overview of Europe (Map content (c) 2007 by MapQuest, Inc and NavTeq. Used with permission) (MapQuest) Overview        of EuropeOverview of Europe (Räber et al. 2003)


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