Reviews of Books & Atlases

GIS CARTOGRAPHY: A GUIDE TO EFFECTIVE MAP

DESIGN / Gretchen N. Peterson. Boca Raton, FL: CRC
Press Taylor & Francis Group, 2009. 227 pp.: colour illustrations; ISBN-13: 9781420082135 (hardcover), US$89.95.
Available from: http://www.crcpress.com.
Gretchen Petersons GIS Cartography opens with her objection to the expectation that beginner GIS practitioners
are supposed to make effective maps at the onset of their
careers. Her concern is valid, considering that GIS technicians are rarely given adequate cartographic training
and therefore have limited map-making skills. However,
Peterson misses the mark in attributing the cause of the
problem when she complains about cartography books
that were outdated, not in-depth enough, or that focused
on an entirely different software platform from the one
they were using (p. 2). Petersons misconception could
stem from map-design publications (e.g., Dent and others
2009; Slocum and others 2009) being inadequately marketed outside academia and thus has failing to reach the
current crop of non-traditionally trained digital mapping/
GIS practitioners. Early in the first chapter, Peterson discusses map-design competitions, supporting cartographers
use of extra time spent designing maps for, rather than
learning from said competitions. She overlooks the fact
that entrants can learn from judges critiques, and can
learn design characteristics from the winning entries.
Nonetheless, Peterson effectively asserts that aesthetic
design goes hand-in-hand with communicative design.
Peterson promotes her text as primarily aimed at early
career [GIS] professionals (p. 5). I will focus here on
examining how well this aim succeeds.

In Chapter 2, Peterson suggests that GIS cartographers

should get creative design inspiration from art museums,
graphic design books, and cartographic collections on-line
or in print. While I have no objection to thinking outside
the box, Peterson makes no mention of inspirational
cartographic literature.
Petersons first long essay is the third chapter on lay-out
design. In addition to Appendix A, which offers 16 layout sketches, the author provides a lay-out checklist with
primary and secondary elements. She guides the reader
with thoughtful questions on what lay-out or peripheral
elements to include on the map. With each element, she
discusses best practices for placement and style. For example, Peterson makes suggestions for title and subtitle
lettering (including font, sizes, and placement), and wisely
cautions against using all capitals. Regarding map authorship, Peterson appropriately quotes Edward Tuftes assertion that people, not agencies (who usually get the credit),
make maps. Peterson makes an oversight, however, when
she states that the inclusion of a north arrow is almost
always warranted (p. 27); she fails to consider cases when
a north arrow should not be used, including, for example,
on a small-scale conical projection. Another problem with
the text is that Peterson twice credits Christopher Walker
for developing the word-as-graphical separator trick
(pp. 14, 33), but fails to provide a visual example. Finally,
in her brief section on projections, she neglects to recognize how the choice of projection can affect the design of
the map. The last third of the chapter is devoted to helpful stylistic discussions on context, arrangement, emphasis, simplicity versus complexity, margins, and balance.

Peterson points out that she avoids focusing on any

particular GIS program; indeed, she neglects to refer to
any of them. A list of Web links to the cartographic pages
of the major GIS companies would have been a helpful
resource for her audience. She mentions that the books
companion Web site (http://www.gretchenpeterson.com)
provides other helpful links, but it consists only of a promotional quotation: This is the book to have on map
design fundamentals and a downloadable PDF poster containing the five key concepts from the book. The site does
not contain the promised links to other related Web sites.

Chapter 4 is about fonts. Peterson gives good advice on

the use of serif and sans serif fonts, along with practical
guides on font sizes. She does a good job of self-testing
font sizes to determine readability at distances ranging
from 0.5 to 7 m. Peterson does slip up when she illustrates a side-by-side map (p. 70) with different character
spacing. Unfortunately, her labelling of the Pacific Ocean
is in the wrong direction and violates the lettering-angle
recommendation she makes later in the text (p. 75).
The fifth chapter deals with colour. Unfortunately, Peterson
makes a couple of questionable comments in the chapters

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Reviews

first two pages. She states that GIS cartographers without

a background in colour design might design a map that
somewhat conveys its message, albeit in an ugly way. So
we may produce a map that effectively communicates but
is not necessarily aesthetic (p. 77). But she does not
acknowledge the possibility that a cartographer will not
be able to communicate if the map is so aesthetically distasteful that a reader will not want to use it. On the next
page, Peterson casually pronounces that the art of making maps is constantly evolving as technology changes and
color fashions change (p. 78). Such statements here and
elsewhere in the book referring to changing fashions in
cartography are enough to make any professional cartographer cringe.
Peterson provides good explanations of colour systems,
including RGB, hexadecimal, HSV, CMYK, and CIELAB;
although the inclusion of PMS colours would have
strengthened her discussion. She proceeds with a short
discussion about the concept of figureground, with a
focus on achieving it in colour, but she leaves out
any mention of how to deal with it in black and white.
Peterson then moves on to choropleth maps and gives a
firm rule against mapping with any more than five shades
of a colour; her insistence on this rule suggests that she
did not consider classless choropleth maps. Nonetheless,
she gives good advice on normalizing choropleth data.
Oddly, though, she also places elevation maps in the
choropleth category, indicating her lack of awareness of
dasymetric maps.
Highlighted at the end of the choropleth section are two
paragraphs on dot density maps and graduated symbol
maps, which should have been given their own full section. Not only does Peterson incorrectly reference HansJoaquim Meihoefers 1969 article from Canadian Cartographer, but she misses his points in discussing the utility
of graduated circles; thus, she incorrectly advises against
using more than three circle sizes, recommending the use
of graduated squares or triangles instead. Her advice indicates that she has not read Meihoefers paper, and instead
has relied on inappropriate second-hand information.
In the rest of the chapter, Peterson provides good recommendations on colour conventions, colour contrast, and
issues dealing with map readers possible colour deficiencies. She wisely advises against the use of colourful peripheral elements that could distract from the body of the
map. She concludes the chapter with the good suggestion
to design black-and-white/grey-scale maps, which achieve
elegant and succinct communication when colour is not
necessary or when black and white is required. However,
Peterson does not consummate her own message: she
provides no black-and-white examples to counter the
colour figures in the book.
Chapter 6 concerns the design and mapping of features
(points, lines, and polygons) applied to a variety of map
layers and themes: roads, rivers, bodies of water, cities,
political boundaries, fuzzy features, elevation and hill160

shade, parcels, water and wind currents, temperature,

land use, trails, utilities, impervious surfaces, basins, buildings, soils, and geology. In Appendix C, Peterson displays
a set of eight colour boxes that indicate her preferred
choices for each category. Often she gives intelligent,
thoughtful guides to good design of these features, but a
couple of her examples work against the instructions she
tries to convey. For instance, the major current depicted
in Figure 6.52 (p. 134) has a poorly placed arrow-head,
and the gridded data example in Figure 6.65 (p. 142) is
too coarse to be an effective design. She also objects to
mapping temperature as a continuous feature, arguing
that it is collected only from points, but she does not object to an isoline map of data interpolated from those
same points. In the soil mapping section, Peterson refers
to a technique developed by Linda Barrett of the University of Akron using colour-coded dots to represent
percentage of soil type. Unfortunately, she does not give
a visual example.
The last chapter covers media, with a number of practical
suggestions regarding presentation venue and viewing distance. In regard to slides, Peterson gives advice on fast
and simple, versus slow and simple, versus slow and busy
presentations. In cases of extra complexity, she suggests
adding layers to successive map slides, and longer viewing
intervals for the most complex slides. Other media examples include the placement and design of maps in reports
and posters, on the Web, and for export. Most of her
advice is well stated and derived from practical experience. Her points for maps on the Web and for export,
however, indicate that she is unaware of caching detailed
high-resolution Web maps, nor does she have any knowledge of the JPEG2000 format.
While most of Petersons instructions fit the standard
cartographic mould, many are incorrect or incomplete
and could mislead an unwary reader. It is unlikely that
CRC Press sent out Petersons manuscript for peer review
before publishing it; no academic cartographer would
have let so many statements with cartographic errors
go without comment. I cannot recommend this book for
neophyte cartographers, and no professionally trained
cartographer would find new information in this book. I
must make these comments in spite of the fact that the
book had such great potential as a design reference for
early-career GIS practitioners.

References
Dent, B.D., J.S. Torguson, and T.W. Hodler. 2009. Cartography: Thematic Map Design, 6th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill
Higher Education.
Slocum, T.A., R.B. McMaster, F.C. Kessler, and H.H. Howard.
2009. Thematic Cartography and Geovisualization, 3rd ed.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Daniel G. Cole / IT Office / Smithsonian Institution /

Washington / DC / USA
cartographica (volume 45, issue 2)

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