August, 2005. In this second segment of his online series, From GIS to the Desktop, author Steve Gordon of Cartagram LLC, further discusses using Adobe Illustrator and MAPublisher to create great looking map products.
“My first article in this series, From GIS to the Desktop, explored the visual and production value of taking GIS data and maps to desktop software like Adobe Illustrator. The visual effects you can elicit in desktop software will make the trip rewarding – your maps will communicate more effectively, your clients will be more pleased with the richness of your proofs and prints, your files will be more portable, and you may discover new ways of symbolizing map data along the way. How do you travel from GIS to the desktop, quickly and affordably? […] you import, edit and perform various GIS operations on your data before exporting files in a GIS format that you then import into Illustrator as data. This packs your attributes and georeferencing information in case you need to access or manipulate it using the Avenza MAPublisher plug-ins during final map production…”