Where do these maps come from?

[Some_Person]

I see this style of road map all over wikipedia:

is there a source or program where all them are obtained? I never see a different style map when looking up roads, and I doubt they're all just made on a program like paint, so I want to know if anyone knows the source. It'd be the coolest thing to find a database or something of them.

EDIT: PA 33 is red because I used the map from its wikipedia page(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PA_33).

[Roadsguy]

Any particular reason PA 33 is red? If that's the non-Interstate expressway color, then it's wrong about US 22 and the end pieces of the US 209 wye branch from 33 to Stroudsburg, though the latter is kinda confusing.

EDIT: As for the actual thread's topic, I have no idea. Made in one program with a uniform style?

[Some_Person]

Any particular reason PA 33 is red? If that's the non-Interstate expressway color, then it's wrong about US 22 and the end pieces of the US 209 wye branch from 33 to Stroudsburg, though the latter is kinda confusing.

EDIT: As for the actual thread's topic, I have no idea. Made in one program with a uniform style?

Maybe I should've clarified that in the original post, it's red because I took the picture of the map off wikipedia's page of PA-33. I do think 22 and 209 should have separate coloring since they are freeways(well, 209 does have a signalized intersection at that point, though most maps consider it freeway), but the only other coloring is given to interstates/toll routes it seems.

[NE2]

GIS.

[Scott5114]

I'm from Wikipedia and I'm one of the people making maps in this style. As NE2 indicates, we do make our maps with GIS software (usually QGIS because it's free, although there are some maps made in ArcGIS), usually using some combination of TIGER data from the census bureau, NHPN data from FHWA, and data from the state DOT. We have a set of guidelines to ensure our maps are all made in the same style (we all use the same color tan for the background, same relative line widths, etc.). That means you can always expect Wikipedia's US road maps to be relatively consistent from article to article. The red line is always the "highlighted" route, i.e., the route that the reader's attention is drawn to, usually the subject of the article.

Fortunately the standard has some wiggle room so with a little extra effort you can get some nice general purpose maps like this:

[Central Avenue]

I wish the people who make these maps would standardize on a different typeface. The FHWA Series faces are designed for signage; for maps it would be more appropriate to choose something that's optimized for legibility at smaller sizes.

(The same goes for the shield designs, really--I have nothing against the "standard" designs when used for their intended purpose, but shrinking down something meant to be a 3-foot-tall sign to a 24-pixel-tall icon isn't very aesthetically appealing.)

[hobsini2]

Scott, I vaguely remember my first GIS course in college. If i recall correctly, we used arcGIS and arcview primarily. I hated how tedious it was to get even just a straight line drawn on a map. Had I stayed with my geography major, I would have had to take 3 more GIS courses. Ugh!  That's why I changed my major from geography to meteorology.  Admittedly that was back in 1997.

[cpzilliacus]

I wish the people who make these maps would standardize on a different typeface. The FHWA Series faces are designed for signage; for maps it would be more appropriate to choose something that's optimized for legibility at smaller sizes.

(The same goes for the shield designs, really--I have nothing against the "standard" designs when used for their intended purpose, but shrinking down something meant to be a 3-foot-tall sign to a 24-pixel-tall icon isn't very aesthetically appealing.)

Central, I must respectfully disagree.  Most of the shield fonts used on conventional paper maps are no better, and sometimes much worse than the FHWA fonts shown above.

[Scott5114]

I agree with regards to the typefaces. I don't care much for FHWA Series in that context either. That is why on my maps I use Pigiarniq for city names and Rockwell for county names, as seen in my post above.