More people than ever are making maps with a growing diversity of tools. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software is being used by a broad array of industries and users. Hundreds of web mapping sites exist, and tools for the relatively easy creation of map mashups (such as the Google Maps API) allow people to map their own data collected with GPS and by other means.
Map making tools are proliferating and easily accessible: but how do you learn to make decent maps if you are not a professionally trained cartographer?
The book Making Maps 3nd edition by John Krygier and Denis Wood (published by Guilford Press) was written for the Do It Yourself (DIY) cartographer – the student, the new GIS user, the internet user – anyone who wants to make maps that work and look great.
This blog highlights resources that supplement the Making Maps book and help you to make better maps. Like the Making Maps book, this blog also provides examples of creative and provocative maps and material on map making and understanding, culled from contemporary and historical sources.
John Krygier is Professor of Geography at Ohio Wesleyan University. He is past president of the North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS) and author of a mess of articles and book chapters. He has won national map design award contests and has extensive experience designing and making maps with a diversity of technologies. He has taught cartography and GIS courses for over 15 years.
Denis Wood‘s bio can be found here.
All material on this blog, not otherwise under copyright or license, is under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Making Maps: DIY Cartography 
hi.
I am on the Fall River United Arts Board. I am heading a project the will create a Cultural Map of Fall River Ma.
Do you know of any that exist that i may look at?
Patrice
“Cultural Map” can mean diverse things – but I think you are talking about a map showing an area’s cultural assets, history, etc. Among the best examples is the Cultural Map of Wisconsin. An online version is here. While this is for an entire state, it should provide a good guide to the kind of content such a map can have.
Many “cultural maps” are used to promote tourism. One example is the Staten Island Cultural Map (PDF). A nice looking map, marred, a bit, by the locations of “Save A Dollar” deals. But someone has to pay for these maps.
You might want to check out the CartoTalk site, listed in the Blogroll of this blog. Many practicing cartographers there who may have worked on such maps.
John K.
I absolutely love this site!
The poetry of cartography…
Hi,
Not sure if this is the proper place to leave this post, but I wanted to add the following to the, “Strange Map” section.
An Irish surname geneology map;
see; http://www.borderart.com/prodpage.asp?ProdID=2
Not so strange, I guess, innovative though… and nicely done!
Hi
Im planing to work with advertising maps by different communities but also planning to do city maps, combining public services + entreteinment and sponsors for residents and touris.
Do you think that i need to know or learn more about making maps like with cartography?. Also do i need some permit to use maps from internet?
What could be the best way to star a company map as entrepenuer guy, combinig all new services like phone, text and internet services.? should i learn first about how make maps?
Thanks
Manuel
Hi Manuel,
There are a significant number of cartographic firms that create city maps, typically for tourism, promotion, etc.
If you want to make such maps, you certainly do need to learn about cartographic design. The medium for the
maps is important: will they be printed on paper, color, black and white, or only on the computer – then are they
just static digital maps, or interactive flash maps, etc.
On the other hand, if you start a company to create such maps, you could also hire cartographers – such skills
can’t be learned quickly.
My suggestion is to check out the CartoTalk discussion board: http://www.cartotalk.com/ A large number of
professional cartographers hang out there and may be able to advise you.
Sir,
I am a programmer and would like to learn how to write my own map making programs. Do you know of any books that address the actual algorithms and techniques that are needed to acually write a program that one can use to make maps?
There are a good number of open source GIS programs that I have looked at but they do not address a lot of the items one needs to make nice, useful, maps. Plus, they are focused on cartographer types rather than the more lay type user.
Any leads and suggestions will be appreciated.
Respectfully,
Fred Pospeschil
Try the newish book Map Scripting 101: http://mapscripting.com/book
Mr. Krygier,
I have a permissions issue to request of you. I have named my music band Eleventh Ward and would love to use the map that you used in one of your posts:
https://makingmaps.net/2009/01/27/a-map-of-beerdom-new-york-11th-ward-1885/
Are you the right person to ask or do I have to go further.
Thank you for your time.
Chris
Hi Chris: that map is out of an old periodical, the Christian Union. That journal is long out of copyright, and I checked Google Books and they have many issues reproduced in full – that means they could not find anyone who renewed the copyright. That said, you should be safe to use the map (at most, indicate the original source). Hope that helps,
John K.
Hi John,
This picture is an incredibly unique way of looking at Manhattan in a retro context: https://makingmaps.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/tenement_smaller_smaller.jpg
I would be extremely interested in getting a larger jpg of this map, but not sure how I would go about doing that. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Adam
A scan of the map can be downloaded at the link on the blog posting or download here. That is the highest resolution available, unless you want to find an original copy of the Harper’s issue the map was published in and scan yourself.
Thanks!
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Hullo,
I’m trying to find out about sources and exact etymology of the term “cartacoethes” – which to report was apparently quite the rage in all kinds of blogs in the years 2009-11. However, your entry of Oct 13, 2008, is the only mention of this term that I can assign reliably to an earlier date. (Plus, it’s one of only very few that does not exist for the mere novelty of the notion, but rather out of an interest for a related field of knowledge.)
Can you help me out here? Where did you come across this term?
Kind regards,
Robert
Hi Robert: I made up the word, having found “cacoethes” in the thesaurus and adding carto to it.
hi, just came across your wonderful site and I’m not sure if you ever came across: http://geologicalmaps.net/irishhistmaps/index.cfm but I thought you might enjoy. I think they have a great collection of beautiful maps. Thanks for all the information on your site here!
I am Philippe Halaburda, a French-born artist who is living and working in New York, USA.
I think that you might be interested in discovering my art on geographic abstraction.
Based on feelings or memories, my work process delves into the complex undercurrents of intimate and collective networks.
It also leads to the interconnections between the human and the non-human. The blurry boundary between perception and experience always inspired me: I am involved in the randomness of emotion into art by imaging abstract visuals based on the subconscious.
Exploring forms and lines in my map compositions, I form disaggregated grids and imaginary topographies exploring social tensions affecting the human behavior, instead of addresses and landmarks.
I invite you to discover my portfolio http://www.halaburda.com or IG @halaburda