At the annual Avenza User Conference a few months ago, one of our very own Avenza team members Riley Sweeney gave us a preview of the new Vector Basemaps tool for MAPublisher. As a member of the quality assurance team, Riley’s expertise was instrumental in the development of Vector Basemaps.
In this presentation, Riley gives us a sneak peek into the exciting future of MAPublisher. Her presentation sparks new ideas of how a map can be started, created, or even finished with the Vector Basemaps tool. Riley leads us through a demonstration of the functionality and workflow possibilities this new feature holds. The special thing about the Vector Basemaps tool is that you don’t need to be an experienced GIS user or cartographer to quickly get the hang of it. It is the perfect tool for those with Illustrator experience who are looking to get into the art of cartography. Hang tight, Vector Basemaps are coming very soon to MAPublisher!
The Avenza User Conference is an annual free virtual conference for map makers, GIS enthusiasts, and geospatial professionals worldwide who share a common interest in Avenza mapping technology. The conference includes a combination of virtual sessions led by experts who will share their experiences with Avenza mapping products.
The Avenza User Conference is an annual event that grows each year with incredible speakers and participants. Get inspired by mapping and industry professionals by joining us for #AvenzaUC2024. Register here for next year’s conference taking place on May 9th, 2024.
An important component of any map that contains roads is the stylization of such roads, and ensuring that the end user can understand the way they are displayed. To go even further, it may also be important for the user to be able to differentiate between the various road classifications they are viewing.
When a line layer containing road data is first imported into MAPublisher, all roads appear with the same appearance regardless of their class or type. However, with the help of MAPublisher and some native Illustrator tools, you can easily turn your roads from this:
…into this:
Getting Started
As stated above, this workflow uses tools from both Adobe Illustrator’s native toolbar as well as the MAPublisher extension. More specifically, MAP Stylesheet Themes and MAP Selections along with the Graphic Styles and Appearance panels.
This process will only work if your road data contains an attribute on which you can base classification rules. For example, my road data has an attribute column named “CLASS” with four categories: Primary Road, Primary Ramp, Secondary Road, and Local Road. I have previously created a graphic style for each road type and saved them in a template document titled RoadStyles.ai. In my current document, I have simply imported these styles to the Graphic Styles panel by using the menu option for “Open Graphic Style Library”. For more information about the Graphic Styles panel, check out its Adobe help page.
Controlled Access Highway:
Controlled Access Ramp:
Major Road:
Minor Road:
These styles have all been created using the Appearance panel to overlay a stroke with a smaller weight over a stroke with a larger weight of a different colour. These road styles are usually referred to as cased roads. For information about the Appearance panel, check out its Adobe help page.
Now that the graphic styles have been created/imported, I can apply a MAP Stylesheet Theme I have created based on the road types.
Cleaning Up with Groups
Now that the main styles have been applied to each road class, we must perform a few more steps to perfect the appearance of our roads. If you zoom in closely on the roads you may notice that intersecting roads do not appear as seamless as you would like. Don’t worry; there is a way to transform your roads from looking like this:
…to this:
Why does this happen?
This occurs because MAP Stylesheet Themes apply the graphic styles at the path level. To look like intersections, each road classification must become one object, whether by being grouped or by turning the various paths into a compound path. Grouping is the preferred method for managing these objects since a compound path will delete the attributes of all paths that are being compounded. For example, if I turned my road types into compound paths, the street names would be turned blank. This would make automatic labeling with MAPublisher LabelPro impossible. Regardless, using groups instead of compound paths will avoid this issue, as grouped objects retain their original attributes.
Grouping Road Classes
In order to group our road classes we will have to select the road paths belonging to each class. We can use MAP Selections to individually select each of our road classes. The expressions we created when defining our MAP Stylesheet Theme rules can be saved as Named Expressions to be used again through the Expression Library. Once selected the street classes can be grouped using CTRL+G on your keyboard, right-clicking and selecting “Group” or selecting Object > Group from the menu. The final step is to re-apply the graphic style appropriate to each group using the Adobe Graphic Style panel.
If we want to get technical here regarding what has happened to our artwork, using the Appearance panel we can see that each of the paths we initially imported now has a graphic style applied to it on two levels: at the path level (done through MAP Stylesheets) and at the group level (done by grouping and applying a graphic style to the group). It is possible to symbolize our artwork even further, at the layer level, by selecting the target icon for our roads layer. If desired we could apply a transparency at the layer level that would supersede all graphic styles used on objects in the layer.
Our artwork now has symbolization that suggests intersections, giving our road map a much neater appearance.
Finishing Touches
Now that our roads are grouped together, they are much easier to manage in the Illustrator layers panel.
Groups can be easily arranged using the Layers panel. Many cartographers prefer to arrange their roads with major highways at the top and descending to reach local roads at the bottom of the hierarchy. Groups also make it easier to move objects between groups if necessary: simply select the path in the Layers panel and drag it to another group.
With our groups, we can now apply some tweaks to finish off their appearance. There will be many instances where we will need to override the intersection appearances that result from grouping. For example, in the image below we have ramps that definitely do not intersect as suggested by their grouping.
To correct this error, we can select the road lines that will pass over the others and, using the Layers panel, drag the paths from their group. This will eliminate the implication on the map that these roads actually intersect.
The ungrouped roads can now be arranged relative to the other paths until we find a layout that is the truest representation of the road network.
Using MAP Stylesheet Themes to Create a Legend
So why do we use MAP Stylesheet Themes if we must manually group the objects again after use? For a few reasons: it keeps us organized, it allows us to add the Named Expressions to the Expression Library, and most importantly, we can use these MAP Stylesheet Themes to automatically generate a Legend for us that reflects our Stylesheet rule names.
A deeper understanding of the Adobe Illustrator toolbox can go a long way in helping you use MAPublisher to leverage the full potential of your GIS datasets to create customized road styles. Happy mapping!
Be sure to check out our tutorial for Creating Line Stylesheet Themes as well as the video tutorial. This tutorial also includes the instructions for creating cased roads!
Last month at the annual Avenza User Conference, we had the pleasure of hearing from Robert Simmon, a renowned cartographer and science communicator who specializes in visualizing imagery from satellites. Robert is currently approaching a decade working for Planet Labs, where he helps create near-daily medium-resolution imagery of the Earth, maps Planetary Variables and designs bespoke graphics for media. Prior to his work at Planet Labs, he co-created the NASA Earth Observatory, a website dedicated to communicating Earth and remote sensing science. His work has appeared in newspapers, magazines, and websites, including the front page of the New York Times and the cover of National Geographic. He is also known for crafting the Blue Marble featured on the original Apple iPhone.
In this presentation, Robert demonstrates his workflow to import high-bit-depth scientific data into Adobe Photoshop and transform it into accessible & readily displayable imagery. These techniques rely on Geographic Imager‘s unique capabilities to exploit the georeferencing embedded in common data formats. This unlocks Photoshop’s powerful image processing tools which can produce higher-quality output than typical GIS and image processing software, all while maintaining the precise location of every pixel. The presentation touches on processes such as reordering bands, blending scenes, color correction with curves, vibrance enhancement, and sharpening.
The Avenza User Conference is an annual free virtual conference for map makers, GIS enthusiasts, and geospatial professionals worldwide who share a common interest in Avenza mapping technology. The conference includes a combination of virtual sessions led by experts who will share their experiences with Avenza mapping products.
The Avenza User Conference is an annual event that grows each year with incredible speakers and participants. Get inspired by mapping and industry professionals by joining us for #AvenzaUC2024. Register here for next year’s conference taking place on May 9th, 2024.
In this blog, we’ll be highlighting a very useful tool that may fly under the radar to the average MAPublisher user: the MAP Measurement tool! This tool is great for measuring the distance between two or more points, azimuths, and even the perimeter and area of closed paths. It is a great addition to your arsenal of regular MAPublisher tools because it can be customized to suit a variety of measuring methods, units, and shapes.
The MAP Measurement tool can be used to calculate the Euclidean distance between any two or more points on a map. This can be done using one of three calculation methods: geodesic (based on datum), cartesian (based on map projection) or Rhumb line. In the example below, I have calculated the distance between Paris and Shanghai using a geodesic method, which is why the line appears rounded rather than straight in the current Natural Earth projection.
I can incorporate multiple points in my calculation, and the total distance will continue to increase. You can also hold the Alt/Option key while drawing to display the length of each line segment in your trip. In my example, I have decided to add a point in Cairo to follow Shanghai, as seen below.
Once I have finished adding points to my map, I have the option to convert the measurement line to art in my currently selected layer. This is a great way to quickly and accurately draw lines between points on certain types of maps that require it, such as a flow map or flight map.
The MAP Measurement tool can also be used to measure perimeter and area of polygons. In the example below, I have calculated the perimeter and area of a triangle drawn between the points of Bogotá, Lima and São Paulo.
This blog only outlines a few of the use cases of the MAP Measurement tool, however there are countless other ways that you can apply this tool to your cartographic designs. The possibilities are virtually endless!
For more information about the MAP Measurement tool, check out our Support Centre article.
In this edition of Cartographer Chronicles, we hear from Glen Pawelski. Glen is a skilled cartographer with particular expertise in creating maps for the educational, travel and trade industries. With an interest in other subjects related to cartography, such as geology, he has explored and researched both professionally and personally throughout his career. Glen has been a North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS) member for over thirty years, including two terms on the Board of Directors. In this edition, Glen is sharing his journey through his career so far in his own words, beginning with his interest in maps since his youth all the way to his current projects.
***
Career Overview
I’ve been enchanted with maps since an early age. In elementary school, I would grab NatGeo magazines from the library, place paper over the maps and trace them. Besides maps, it was apparent that I had an interest in other scientific fields, such as astronomy and geology.
This eventually led me to study geography and cartography at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where I studied with Dr. Sona Andrews, who really fueled my interest in cartography. While at UWM I took undergrad courses in cartography, GIS, human and physical geography, archaeology, anthropology, astronomy, and geomorphology. I also worked creating maps and graphics at the Cartography Lab within the Geography Department.
I gained a wealth of experience and knowledge while working at the lab. This led to internship opportunities: one semester at the Bureau of Land Management and another at a local GIS firm. It was also at this time that Dr. Andrews recruited me to work at my first NACIS conference in Milwaukee in 1991.
My education continued into my Master’s program at UWM where, after one year, I was whisked away to the professional world of map-making. A chance connection at an AAG conference in 1993 led to an on-site interview which resulted in landing my first job as a ‘Digital Cartography Coordinator’ at The H.M. Gousha Company in Texas.
After Rand McNally acquired the company and closed its doors, I moved to NovoPrint USA in Milwaukee and XNR Productions/Terra Carta in Madison. I have called Mapping Specialists home for the past 13 years, and there you will find me happily working away on any of dozens of active projects.
I’ve been involved with NACIS since that student ‘volunteer’ time in 1991. I served two separate terms on the Board of Directors and also served as Local Arrangements Co-Organizer. Every year the NACIS conference acts as a driving force in my own professional development and a mechanism for fostering the many long-term friendships I’ve been so fortunate to make.
Cartographic Highlights
I must say what an honour it was to be a part of the 1996 Olympic Games effort. Gousha produced a series of maps for the Olympics, and I travelled to Atlanta to meet representatives from The Atlanta Committee for the Games of the XXVI Olympiad. Quite the experience!
The exact year escapes me, but I recall working with Avenza while at Gousha performing some very early testing for the MAPublisher set of tools for Adobe Illustrator.
Since then, MAPublisher has become an integral part of everything I create, from textbook maps to historical maps in books such as The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman, The Compleat Victory by Kevin Weddle, and The Earth is Weeping by Peter Cozzens.
MAPublisher also provided essential tools for my workflow on other professional projects, as well as some personal ones. For example, I was honored to be a part of the documentary film, and subsequent book, The Colorado. In addition to the incredible imagery and story behind the film, the maps that I made provided the necessary context for the different discussions throughout the story, and honestly, that felt pretty good. It was humbling to see the film screening in multiple cities, including at The Kennedy Center in DC. Personal projects allow me to tinker around more with MAPublisher and other designs when I’m not at work, and I have a few examples of these here.
What’s Next?
I would say that I fit comfortably within what we used to call, “traditional cartography.” I entered the field just as the digital transition of map production was taking hold. I started with tools such as Atlas*GIS, CorelDraw!, Freehand, and the early, no-layering-Illustrator. Nowadays, I incorporate many more tools into the process. I am always looking at new approaches, new methods, and new tools to better tell the story the map was intended to tell, whether that’s incorporating Esri StoryMaps, using Blender or Eduard, or exploring other areas such as R and Python.
Have you ever thought about using Avenza Maps and MAPublisher together? Perhaps you’ve wanted to record the details of your trip, and use MAPublisher to create a map of your own. In this blog, we’ll walk you through how to do just that.
Every day after work I go for a 3km run on the same trails near the Avenza office. To track this I can download a map of Toronto from the Avenza Map Store. After opening the map, I can use the Tracking tool to begin tracking the course of my run. I also would like to collect points of some important locations throughout the park. This layer contains an attribute schema regarding information about the points: whether they have a gate, have a building, have a map, and/or have a telephone.
I would now like to export my layers from Avenza Maps to a file format that I can use in MAPublisher to create a map. From the Layers tab, I can use the export button to export my track and point layers to a shapefile and save it to my Google Drive account.
On my computer, I can download the zipped file with my shapefiles in it and extract it. I can then import my data and begin working on my map. I want my map to be simple and easy to read. It is only for personal use so it will not be exceptionally detailed beyond information I might need in case of an emergency during my run.
After finishing my map, I can use the MAPublisher Export tool to save it as a Geospatial PDF file. I can then import it on the Avenza Maps app and use it during my next run. Now I’ve just created my own map using the data I’ve collected from the Avenza Maps app!
Download Avenza Maps Today
Start recording your next walk, run, or hike by using the tracking tool in the Avenza Maps app, and then you can export this data into MAPublisher to create your very own map for next time.
Download the Avenza Maps app today, available on iOS or Android!
We are very pleased to announce the release of Geographic Imager version 6.6, the latest version of our Geographic Imager® extension for Adobe Photoshop®.
With Geographic Imager v6.6, we are announcing official support for all Apple Silicon processors, compatibility with Adobe Photoshop 2023 (version 24) and macOS Ventura (version 13), a brand new welcome screen design, and several performance enhancements and bug fixes.
Here’s what you can expect with the latest Geographic Imager v6.6 release:
Apple Silicon Processor Support
Our team has worked to ensure that Geographic Imager v6.6 runs smoothly with computers using any Apple Silicon chip, and as such, we can declare that Geographic Imager is now joining MAPublisher in officially supporting these processors.
Compatibility Updates for Adobe Photoshop and macOS
We want our users to enjoy a truly seamless integration with the Adobe Photoshop workspace. We are therefore happy to announce that Geographic Imager v6.6 is fully compatible with the new Adobe Photoshop 2023 (version 24) update on both Mac and Windows.
Geographic Imager v6.6 is also fully compatible with the recently released macOS Ventura (version 13).
New Welcome Screen Design
Geographic Imager v6.6 introduces a brand new welcome screen that appears upon opening the application. This window is equipped with visually appealing refreshed graphics while maintaining easy access to the License Management window. It also features several new sections that increase discoverability, such as getting started, help and tutorials, and other Avenza news or event information. There is also a Get Inspired section to provide inspiration for you, which features articles from our blog that highlights the excellent stories and tips from some of our most proficient users.
If you would like to learn more about the new Geographic Imager 6.6 features or have any questions, please check out our Support Centre.
Geographic Imager v6.6 is immediately available today, free of charge to all current Geographic Imager users with active maintenance subscriptions and as an upgrade for non-maintenance users.
The Day 13 theme of the #30DayMapChallenge was more of a question: can you create a map in 5 minutes? Well, we were up for the challenge! Here at Avenza, we used this as an opportunity to teach our marketing team (with limited GIS experience) the basics of cartography. In the weeks leading up to this day, we taught them how to perform a few simple tasks in MAPublisher to create a basic map of South America.
Simplified Steps for Creating a Map
We broke down the process of making this map into five general steps for the purpose of simplicity.
Import Data
The first step was to import country area data using the Import button on the MAP Toolbar. After import, the Artboard tool was used to adjust map boundaries to the desired position. The MAP View Editor could also be used to fine-tune the movement of the data.
Stylize Data
The second step was to add a stylesheet to the countries using the MAP Themes button. From here a stylesheet was created by clicking the Add button and creating an area stylesheet. The stylesheet editor was then opened, and the style was assigned to the country layer. The Batch Generate Rules… button was very helpful in quickly creating categories for the data based on the desired attribute. For example, one map was created using the Population Density attribute. The categories were assigned a style based on a pre-selected colour ramp. Finally, a rule was created to create a grey style for the part of North America that attaches to South America.
Add a Legend
Using the hamburger menu button in the MAP Themes panel, step three included creating a legend for the map. Removing Rule 1 from the list and adding a title (if desired) were the only extra steps necessary here.
Add Labels
In step four, the goal was to add a label for the country names. We used LabelPro for this to make it quick and simple. We enabled leader lines to ensure all countries were labeled even if the label was too large.
Add Finishing Touches
Finally, we added a title and supplemental text and objects to the map. All of these elements were added to the document using native Adobe Illustrator tools.
Our process of creating a map in 5 minutes was recorded and condensed into a 30-second video. See it, and the other resulting maps, below!
A few weeks ago, between October 19th and 22nd, we had the pleasure of attending the 42nd North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS) Annual Meeting in Minneapolis. NACIS provides a casual and friendly atmosphere for map-lovers from all over the world to come together and share their passion for cartography. Avenza usually conducts our presentation at NACIS as a part of Practical Cartography Day (PCD), using the opportunity to give a sneak peek at what’s to come in the upcoming year for our products, and demonstrate some of the cool functionalities of MAPublisher.
During PCD we had the chance to share the latest and greatest tools in MAPublisher and Geographic Imager, and we also got to demo some of our favourite tools within MAPublisher. This year our presentation was headed by Nick Burchell, our Director of Quality Assurance here at Avenza, and Rebecca Bennett, our Publisher Success Coordinator. Nick highlighted the new and exciting features within our software this year, such as the new attribute viewer and erase tools in MAPublisher and georeferencing storage in PSD files in Geographic Imager. Rebecca closed out the presentation with a demonstration that focused on highlighting the usage of MAPublisher tools in creating a fantasy postal map of Toronto! Check out the presentation below:
After returning from Minneapolis, we had the opportunity to get a comment from Rebecca about her first time at NACIS:
“There were so many amazing and unique presentations this year, and it was really enjoyable and inspiring to be around so many talented cartographers and GIS professionals. Everyone has their own techniques and special flair with their maps and it was evident in their presentations, and also in the Map Gallery.”
“Overall NACIS is a wonderful place to meet like minded people and share your love of maps!”
Tomorrow is November 1st, which means it’s time to start another year of the #30DayMapChallenge! The challenge is a Twitter-based daily map challenge which involves posting a map that suits the daily theme each day and tagging it with the hashtag #30DayMapChallenge. It was first started by Topi Tjukanov in 2019 and has been growing in popularity ever since. In 2021, the challenge ended up with over 9,000 submitted maps!
The daily themes for the challenge are posted in early October each year, giving participants about a month to get a head start on planning some of their maps. Some examples of daily themes include maps that show colours, hexagons, fantasy, or islands. Some of the themes also function as a challenge, such as creating a “bad” map, the 5 minute map challenge, as well as a map that is created using new tools outside of your comfort zone.
This year, we’ll be sharing some of our own maps created by Avenza employees, and highlighting some on-theme maps from the Avenza Map Store! We’re looking forward to seeing all of the interesting and innovative maps floating around the #30DayMapChallenge hashtag on Twitter. Remember, participants can post as many or as few maps as they wish. At the end of the day, it comes down to engaging in the ever growing community of cartography-lovers.
We’ll see you on Twitter tomorrow for the Day 1 theme: points! Happy mapping!
For more information about the #30DayMapChallenge – including the 2022 daily themes, visit the official website or check out the GitHub repository!
