Map:
Here is the Process Summary:
1. Tried to open the 3 videos to view tips on using Type tools in Illustrator. They all seemed to go to an incorrect link so I posted this issue on the forum
2. Copied the data for florida_key.ai off of the R: drive
3. Opened up adobe Illustrator
4. Opened the florida_key.ai document
5. Looked up the Florida Keys on Google Maps to use as a reference point
6. First I am going to switch to a Landscape mode to maximize the map area
7. I was able to find this under the Artboard settings
8. I made a simple neatline using the rectangle box and the “Arrange” function to send it to the back
9. I held the shift key to resize the map to get the maximum size I can get in this landscape page
10. On page 190 of the text, it mentions the order you should place things. First was the neatline, then the mapped area, then the inset (which I may com back to if things are too close), and next is the title and subtitle, so I am adding it next
11. The next things it says to add are the Legend, Data Source, Scale (We will put “not to scale” in this case, and Orientation.
12. I am adding “placeholders for each of these elements now and cleaning up my Illustrator Layers.
13. Now I have the following layers on my map:
15. Next I am tracking down the water bodies via Google Maps to see where they belong
16. Chose a light blue background for the whole map to represent water in general
17. Used a Blue Italic font as mentioned in the text to represent the water bodies
18. “Shelter Bay” was difficult to find and pretty small to label
19. Next I started labeling the National Parks/City Features
20. I am going to try to shade the area that makes up Hammock Park
21. I had to research how to use the “knife” tool in illustrator to achieve this
22. I also learned about the Symbol Toolbar when placing the airport symbol
23. Next I added my “Cities” (again just as placeholders)
24. Finally added my Islands (I chose to use ALL CAPS here)
25. Now that I have everything on my map, I experimented with a lot of different text options. If nothing else, using Adobe Illustrator instead of ArcGIS really makes me appreciate the people that did their mapping for years by hand. I think we take ArcGIS for granted
26. Now I have all of my text in place and set with a solid color with a white stroke fill.
27. Next I am going to review the text and see if there are improvements I can make in each area.
- a. Frame and Neat Line – It emphasizes using a thin black line so modifying mine slightly
- b. Next for the mapped area – I need to maximize the area for my map. I think Landscape was the right choice but even with that there is a lot of empty space that concerns me. Not sure how to fix it, and will be interested to see how others dealt with it
- c. Inset – N/A – If I was in ArcGIS, I might have made an inset map but in Illustrator I don’t have additional data to pull from for the inset.
- d. Title and Subtitle – It says it should be a succinct description of the theme. It says the title should be plain and it should be the largest text on the map and horizontally centered.
- e. Legend – Should be clear and straightforward with a subtle bounding box. Representative symbols should be on the left and defined on the right. Symbols should be vertically centered with their definitions. The legend heading should further explain the map theme.
- f. Data source should be plain and subtle with text centered. Optimally it will be right under the legend.
- g. Scale – Since this was not to scale, I indicated as much for the scale portion of the map.
- h. Orientation – It should be relatively small as to not attract too much attention to it.
28. Next I revisited my text elements to make them look as professional as possible.
Posted to Dropbox and Blog
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