Making my own road atlas

[deathtopumpkins]

Upon hearing of the numerous errors in the latest Rand McNally, and noticing countless inexcusable errors in just about every other map out there, late last year I took on the project of creating my own road atlas, which has recently become what I focus spending all my spare time on.
I started with North Carolina, and have been working on it since. Everything is drawn by hand, traced from aerial imagery in Inkscape, which takes a while, but this, coupled with significant amounts of research, results in a vastly improved map, at least in my opinion.

Here's what I have so far:

(Click for full resolution)

Obviously it's not a finished product (half the state is missing!), but the map so far is in a mostly final state, so I would really appreciate some feedback on things like sizes, colors, legibility, etc., and of course any corrections would be GREATLY appreciated.

Oh and yes it will eventually have a whitish background.

[Truvelo]

That is brilliant - must have taken ages. I like the way you've used the correct state highway shield rather than the generic circle that other maps use.

One thing I would like to see is partial interchanges shown with a triangle that points towards the direction the ramps face. Where maps show no distinction between full and partial interchanges this can be annoying if the exit nearest your destination isn't available in your direction

[corco]

Holy Buckets! Nice effort!

[exit322]

Exceptional quality there, for sure.  Keep us updated with new postings from it!

I've got to draw something up using inkscape to hang in my office - the quality available from it is just exceptional.  And I better know what the hell I'm doing, considering I do have a degree in cartography that I never use.

[travelinmiles]

I have always been a fan of "major" city limits being shown.

[Truvelo]

A member of a UK roads forum drew a series of maps of an imaginary country a few years ago with similar high quality as the North Carolina map at the top of this thread. One thing I like about it is the ramp detail is shown at interchanges as well as city limits.

The map is here by clicking on the first link on the page.

[Duke87]

BIG points for actually using the state highway shield. Professional cartographers always seem to just stick to circles and ovals, this is far superior.

One bit of critique: keep the shield size consistent. I think I get why you're making them different, but it looks awkward and doesn't really convey any information the style of the line doesn't.

[bugo]

That's really good.  The only thing I would change is to use cutout shields for US routes instead of the shields with the black borders. 

[KEK Inc.]

Looks damn good.  I used to make atlases before by hand, and I believe I made one on Paint when I was much younger. 

The only critique is to use cut-outs (I'm not sure how you would pull that off with the state routes), and curve the text for the various bays and rivers.

[corco]

The only real thing I like to see that isn't there is a hillshade of some kind.

You can get DEMs from the USGS Seamless server- just change the color scheme so it's more map-friendly and then bump the transparency way down so it's aesthetically pleasing (I'm not sure how easy that is in Inkscape ,but if you can snag an ArcGIS license from somewhere it would be really easy)

[Scott5114]

I hope you intend to include county lines. That's something most roadgeeks would like to see.

I think you should lose the backgrounds on the shields as well. For the NC state shields, use a squared-off diamond with the number inside–the rounded diamond corners don't really add too much and since you're going to have these all over the map, it's probably better to use a simpler shape (in addition this allows you to use a rectangle object instead of paths, which will make your SVG file smaller and use less memory).

I'm not sure FHWA Series fonts make the best map. Yes, by all means, use them on the route markers, and roadgeeks have a natural tendency to reach for those first, but for fonts, I've found that other fonts can make things much more aesthetically pleasing. (If you want to see bad font choices ruin a map, get a Louisiana official. Optima for city names is tolerable, but parish names in all-caps Chancery Cursive is just a godawful design choice). Here's a look at a couple of my maps with a few fonts that I've found work well for maps–Pigiarniq for the city names (a free font available from the Government of Nunavut) and Rockwell for the county names).

[deathtopumpkins]

Thanks guys! I'm glad to hear that people like it, and these suggestions are exactly the type of thing I wanted.

One thing I would like to see is partial interchanges shown with a triangle that points towards the direction the ramps face. Where maps show no distinction between full and partial interchanges this can be annoying if the exit nearest your destination isn't available in your direction

Great idea, I contemplated a while back a way to show partial interchanges and did not come up with anything satisfactory. I'll implement that in the next update.

I have always been a fan of "major" city limits being shown.

I would like to show both city and county lines, I just need to find the best way how to. Most vectors I've found on the internet use a different map projection than I am, and thus are extremely difficult to adapt.

BIG points for actually using the state highway shield. Professional cartographers always seem to just stick to circles and ovals, this is far superior.

One bit of critique: keep the shield size consistent. I think I get why you're making them different, but it looks awkward and doesn't really convey any information the style of the line doesn't.

As you probably guessed, I made the shields on primary (US and select state) routes larger (25x25 instead of 20x20 px) for emphasis, but you're right, that can probably be inferred equally well from the line itself.

That's really good.  The only thing I would change is to use cutout shields for US routes instead of the shields with the black borders.  

I just tried that. My plan was to use cutouts from the beginning, but I was lazy. However, I just tried a different way and it worked in 5 seconds flat. Looks amazing! Thanks for the suggestion.

The only critique is to use cut-outs (I'm not sure how you would pull that off with the state routes), and curve the text for the various bays and rivers.

See cutouts comment above, thanks for the suggestion. As for curved text, I only recently figured that out, and it can be seen along the ferry routes. I don't really think it has any benefit over horizontal text for any currently labeled rivers though, but I'll be sure to consider that where appropriate in the future.

The only real thing I like to see that isn't there is a hillshade of some kind.

You can get DEMs from the USGS Seamless server- just change the color scheme so it's more map-friendly and then bump the transparency way down so it's aesthetically pleasing (I'm not sure how easy that is in Inkscape ,but if you can snag an ArcGIS license from somewhere it would be really easy)

I've discussed the possibility of finishing this project in ArcGIS with Alex, as that would be much easier (especially to implement things like your suggestion), but I'd really prefer not to have to pay for it. I have access to it at school (I took a GIS class 2 years ago) and at work (internship with City of Newport News Public Works Dept.), but not at home right now. Do they offer educational licenses for free?
This could be done in Inkscape relatively easy, if I had the topography as a vector image of a suitable size, as Inkscape has a transparency slider.



Scott:
All good suggestions. Yes I plan on including county lines, I just haven't decided how to implement them yet. (And in case anybody hadn't picked up on it, hollowed-out circles are county seats).
As for the shields, I've made them cutouts, but I think I will leave the corners of the state route shields rounded. It just looks so fantastic! 
I'll have to think on the fonts though. I really like the way the FHWA ones look... tell you what, if multiple people dislike the way they look, I'll change them.
Your maps look great, by the way!

[TheStranger]

One random thought I had:

I know Rand McNally has the habit of not showing those odd expressway/freeway hybrids as anything other than divided boulevards.  (worst example would be New Jersey's Route 17, full of interchanges that are not at all diagrammed out in the Metro NYC inset)

How would those be shown on your atlas?

[deathtopumpkins]

One random thought I had:

I know Rand McNally has the habit of not showing those odd expressway/freeway hybrids as anything other than divided boulevards.  (worst example would be New Jersey's Route 17, full of interchanges that are not at all diagrammed out in the Metro NYC inset)

How would those be shown on your atlas?

Dark red lines, as some roads already are. I give roads that have no (or maybe 1 or 2) visible structure entrances, and typically a mix of interchanges and intersections this color.

[Scott5114]

Do you intend to show population in any way? It's generally best to use differing dot symbols in addition to font size, since it can be kind of difficult to judge exactly what bracket a city is in just by estimating the font size. If you do use different dots for different size cities, don't fall in the trap of having another dot for county seats, thus obscuring their population–this is the most annoying thing Oklahoma DOT maps do. I took a page out of KDOT's book and designated the county seats with diamonds around the dot for the county seat (I also stole their dot structure, since it seems to work well).

[froggie]

Do they offer educational licenses for free?

They don't.  But I believe a 1-year educational license is $100.

In a general sense, this sort of thing is why having access to a GIS platform is handy.  Especially now with ADC's status as a huge question mark (noted in another thread), I've been able to create a close approximation of the size and scale they use on their street map books.

[deathtopumpkins]

Do you intend to show population in any way? It's generally best to use differing dot symbols in addition to font size, since it can be kind of difficult to judge exactly what bracket a city is in just by estimating the font size. If you do use different dots for different size cities, don't fall in the trap of having another dot for county seats, thus obscuring their population–this is the most annoying thing Oklahoma DOT maps do. I took a page out of KDOT's book and designated the county seats with diamonds around the dot for the county seat (I also stole their dot structure, since it seems to work well).

I guess it must not be prominent enough, but I've always used 5px for <1000 people, 7.5px for <10,000, 10px for <25,000, 12.5px for <50,000 and so on. text sizes are 10pt font for 5px and 7.5px dots, and then increase in increments of 2. The hollowed-out county seat dots I use have the same sizes as regular dots.

They don't.  But I believe a 1-year educational license is $100.

In a general sense, this sort of thing is why having access to a GIS platform is handy.  Especially now with ADC's status as a huge question mark (noted in another thread), I've been able to create a close approximation of the size and scale they use on their street map books.

I guess using ArcGIS is pretty much out of the question then. I really would rather not have to spend $100 on it, especially for just a year when I don't need it for anything other than, simply put, a hobby.

[Scott5114]

QGIS is free but if all you need to use it for is to convert to a different projection it will do the job.

[corco]

Do they offer educational licenses for free?

Yes, if you know where to look. Find your local college and tell them you have interest in GIS- I bet you can get a free license. You may even be able to contact ESRI and tell them you are a high school student with GIS interests.  I got a free student 1-year ArcEditor license for no cost just for being at University of Wyoming, they practically handed them out like candy.  With all due respect to froggie, I bet I've explored this issue a lot more recently than he has (i.e. my undergrad major is in GIS (I'm graduating this December) and I've received one within the last year with no strings or difficulty attached- we even had them sitting on an open table at the Wyoming GIS Center table during Geography Awareness Week last year), and yes, you can get a free 1-year ArcEditor license.

I bet your high school has the means to get them- just ask the teacher.

If that fails, bittorrent

[Roadgeek Adam]

I highly support helping you on this. I am getting sick and tired of errors on common maps. We need us roadgeeks making some stuff I am not good at making them, but I will be happy to help look them over for anything needed and suggest cosmetics.

Also, a minor nitpick on your North Carolina map. Manteo, NC, you missed NC 400 - the shortest signed SR in the state of North Carolina.

[deathtopumpkins]

I'll try the CTE teacher who taught my GIS class two years ago, I still talk to him... and if that fails, my Gov School programming teacher can probably get it for me... they'll buy you a license for anything pretty much with all that money they have.

I think I'm dead set on trying ArcGIS for this now...

Scott: Is the interface similar in QGIS?

I highly support helping you on this. I am getting sick and tired of errors on common maps. We need us roadgeeks making some stuff I am not good at making them, but I will be happy to help look them over for anything needed and suggest cosmetics.

Pointing out any errors is greatly appreciated and plenty of help enough.

Also, a minor nitpick on your North Carolina map. Manteo, NC, you missed NC 400 - the shortest signed SR in the state of North Carolina.

I purposefully left off NC 400, actually, because it is so short! It would have been little more than a dot on the map.

[froggie]

I bet I've explored this issue a lot more recently than he has (i.e. my undergrad major is in GIS (I'm graduating this December) and I've received one within the last year with no strings or difficulty attached- we even had them sitting on an open table at the Wyoming GIS Center table during Geography Awareness Week last year), and yes, you can get a free 1-year ArcEditor license.

Could be because I'm looking at different schools.  I've also mainly been focusing on a college/program that suits my needs and have only barley dabbled into what program costs would be.

Scott: Is the interface similar in QGIS?

I've dabbled in QGIS...the interface is remotely similar but the buttonology is vastly different.  If you're familiar at all with Arc, the easiest way I can explain Q is that it combines ArcMap and ArcCatalog into a single module.

Also, I don't like how QGIS handles projections.  Arc is much more intuitive in that regard.

[deathtopumpkins]

I'm potentially working out a way to get a copy of Arc, but in the meantime will continue working on NC in Inkscape.

And I have updated the map to include all cutout shields now: http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/8240/exporto.png
How do they look?

[Duke87]

Definitely better without the borders. Certainly on the US shields at least, the diamonds I could kinda go either way on (on that note, though, if you do New Jersey, be sure to make a point of including the border on their circles).
I see you've gotten rid of the size difference. Also an improvement. Your 3di shields are still smaller than your 2di shields, though...

One other point worth making: what looks good on a computer screen and what looks good on paper are not necessarily the same. The final test once you're done is to print it out and see how you like it.

[Roadgeek Adam]

I'll try the CTE teacher who taught my GIS class two years ago, I still talk to him... and if that fails, my Gov School programming teacher can probably get it for me... they'll buy you a license for anything pretty much with all that money they have.

I think I'm dead set on trying ArcGIS for this now...

Scott: Is the interface similar in QGIS?

I highly support helping you on this. I am getting sick and tired of errors on common maps. We need us roadgeeks making some stuff I am not good at making them, but I will be happy to help look them over for anything needed and suggest cosmetics.

Pointing out any errors is greatly appreciated and plenty of help enough.

Also, a minor nitpick on your North Carolina map. Manteo, NC, you missed NC 400 - the shortest signed SR in the state of North Carolina.

I purposefully left off NC 400, actually, because it is so short! It would have been little more than a dot on the map.

Not having NC 400 means its not technically correct. Make it a dot, and link an arrow to the road.