Map Lettering and Typography Lab

Here is my map and process summary for the Week 6 lab.   It really made me appreciate all the things that ArcGIS does for you automatically compared to having to do things by hand.   Illustrator has some quirks that I am still getting used to....

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

Map Composition and Organization

This is my map for this week's assignment for Map Composition and Organization.    I tried to think of a creative way to incorporate all three maps, so I chose to use the US layer as an inset layer (I shaded Florida).   Then I used the map of Florida to be an anchor to a callout box that showed the choropleth map of the percentages of the various counties.
I still feel much more comfortable with ArcGIS than I do with Adobe Illustrator, but I am hoping to approve a little bit each week.
Here is my map for the assignment:

And here is my Project Summary:



1.     Process Summary Description

1.       Read entire lab procedure first
2.       Watched the “Using Fill and Stroke Colors” video
3.       Experimented (without saving) with the Fill and stroke tools on some text.   No luck in selecting a county and shading it but I think that is what the lab will teach.
4.       Watched the “Working with Groups and Layers” video.   This one was interesting, especially the isolation mode.   I think the key to getting comfortable with Illustrator is going to be repetitive use.
5.       Watched the using “Kuler and Illustrator”.    Now I know why they call it “Kuler” !    Hopefully this will REALLY help someone like me make better color choices for his projects.
6.       Experimented with the Kuler extension without saving anything.   I love how you can upload a picture and have it match a color scheme.
7.       Copied the lab files from r: drive over to S:\Cartography\Cartographic Design
8.       Started Illustrator and opened the florida_hispanic.ai file
9.       Asses the resources that have been given to me.   These include:

Map of US

Map of Florida

Choropleth Map of Southern Florida – Represents total Hispanic Population based on the 2000 census

Scale Bar

Legend

North Arrow

10.   Examine the purpose of the map: Attempt to illustrate the “Total Hispanic population of the state of Florida based on the 2000 US Census Data”.
11.   Set my “Edit…Preferences” to use “inches” instead of points
12.   Added the rectangle to the project (will be the neatline)
13.   Set the “Fill” to None using the skills learned from the video.
14.   Created a new “Neatline” layer and dragged the selected item over to the new layer as demonstrated in the video.
15.   Added the Title and put it in its own layer
16.   Added the Data Source, Created By, and Date and put in its own layer.
17.   Cleaned up the Legend by removing the word “Legend”, making sure all was lined up, and removing the 0’s from the percentages.
18.   Next I want to use the Kuler tool to select a good color scheme
19.   Tried to determine the best way to incorporate the various map elements.
20.   I eventually came up with the idea to try to make the choropleth map look like a callout of the other map and use the USA map as an inset map.  Due to my lack of graphical talent and skill with Adobe Illustrator, I am not sure how well I pulled this off or not.
21.   I wasn’t as adventurous with color choices because I am still struggling with Illustrator.  This week I hope to watch more of the illustrator videos.
22.   Turned in assignment to dropbox and posted on my blog.

Queensland Flooding

Starting in December 2010, a series of floods hit the Australian state of Queensland with devastating effects.   Our task this week was to research this tragedy and see how GIS plays a part in times of crisis.

We were tasked to find and article and I found this one that shows a map of “Before” and “After” of the flow of the rivers.  The purpose of the map included in the article is to show where the flood waters had risen as compared to the pre-flood state in Rockhampton, Queensland.

Floods in Rockhampton - before and after

By BBC News Mobile January 7, 2011

 “The image above right shows the devastating impact of flood waters on the town of Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia. It was taken on 5 January, when the Fitzroy River was at its peak level of 9.2m.

The image was created using radar data collected by the Cosmo-SkyMed satellite constellation, operated by the Italian Space Agency. The satellites are capable of taking images day and night, as well as through clouds. The flood maps are made available to assist emergency services in their work.

The flood data was overlayed on an existing optical satellite image of the Rockhampton area by BBC News.

Image processed by the Geodesy and Earth Observing Systems Group (GEOS), UNSW. Supported by UNSW, LPMA and CRCSI.”    Sorce: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12138010  

Also I found two videos about the disaster that I wanted to share.

The first is great video of a fly-through of a model that was designed by AAM Group before the flooding occurred. You can really see how the city of Brisbane appears spatially with varying levels of water.  I would be interested to know the tools that they used to generate this 3D spatial view of the city.

source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKLP-EGaja4&feature=player_embedded

The second video really puts a face on the disaster one year later.  Not much spatial information on this one, but worth a watch nonetheless.

A flood of memories - Queensland remembers the 'wall of water' one year on from the summer of disaster.

Source : http://video.couriermail.com.au/2184861262/A-flood-of-memories

Projections Part 1

Here is my map and process summary for this week's assignment about working with projections.   When I first was introduced to GIS a few years back, this was one of the most frustrating concepts to deal with.  As a database programmer, I want everything to be EXACTLY one thing.   With Projections, things are a little "fuzzier" as demonstrated with the calculated areas in this particular lab.   I thought this lab did a great job in exposing us to some of the key concepts we will need in the "real-world".

Here is my Process summary for this lab:

PART III: Process Summary Description

 

1. Opened ArcMap and completed the reading of the Help Topic to answer question #1

2. Opened the ArcCatalog panel

3. Observed the properties of the cntbnd shapefile

4. Added the Albers projected shapefile to the MXD

5. Noted the “Layers” property match those of the shapefile that was just added

6. Answered Question #2

7. Opened up the ArcToolbox

8. Expanded the Data Management Toolbox and the Projections and Transformations Toolset underneath it

9.  Opened the “Project” tool under the Feature toolset

10.   Experimented with the Search function to find tools (I have used this feature in my job duties and find it invaluable)

11.   Used the Project tool and set the output dataset to be: S:\IntroGIS\Projections-Part1\ProjectionsPartI\cntbnd_utm16.shp

12.   Followed the steps to project to NAD 1983 UTM Zone 16N.    (As an aside some of these terms are ones I am really looking forward to learning more about because they confuse me at work: HARN, NAD 1983 vs. 27, etc…)

13.   Added the re-projected version to the MXD and saved my work.

14.   Added the additional dataframes and labeled as instructed.

15.   Moved the UTM Data to the UTM Data Frame

16.   Activated the UTM Data Frame

17.   I set my new State Plane layer to be stored at S:\IntroGIS\Projections-Part1\ProjectionsPartI\cntbnd_stateplanen.shp using a projection of NAD_1983_HARN_StatePlane_Florida_North_FIPS_0903_Feet    (This is interesting because it is the same state plane reference I use at work 0903)

18.   Added the layer to the third data frame.

19.   Saved my work

20.   As I switch between the data frames I can see some very slight differences between them.

21.   Added the Area column to each of the 3 data sources

22.   Set my page to be landscape

23.   Set the properties on each data frame so they are the same size

24.   Set the scale on all three projections to be: 1:9,456,598 so that I can use one scale bar for the whole map

25.   Worked on setting al of the Key Map elements (Title, Neat Line, North Arrow, Legend, Data Source, Created By, Date)

26.   I save that MXD and copied it to a new one so that I can go back and export my deliverable to JPG

27.   I tried adding the Raster data to the Albers layer and got the error message

28.   Moved it to State plane and it put it in the proper place (Had to Zoom to Layer to see it)

29.   Removed the raster from both data frames.

30.   Looked at the spatial reference and saw that it was undefined

31.   Added it to all 3 layers and it put it in the proper place this time around.

32.   Found the “Project Raster” tool and set it to match the screen shot

33.   I set the settings as insructed.35.   Answered Questions 3, 4, and 5

34.   Filled out my Metadata chart

Layer	Data Type	Publication Information: Who Created The Data?	Time Period Data Is Relevant	Spatial Horizontal Coordinate System	Attribute Values
Cntbnd shapefile	Polygon	FGDL	June 2008	GCS_North_American_1983_HARN	67
uwf_n.jpg raster	raster	Not Specified	Not Specified	None Specified	Raster



Introduction to Adobe Illustrator Lab

The purpose of this week's lab was to start learning how to use Adobe Illustrator to better prepare our maps for public consumption.   I haven't used this tool before so it still feels a bit awkward but hopefully that will get better with practice.

Here are my deliverables for this week's lab.  

First is the map that I created using Adobe Illustrator:

And here is my Process Summary:

     Process Summary Description

1.       Printed the “Tools Panel Overview” for Illustrator for future use

2.       Started Illustrator and experimented with some of the tools presented (I have no experience with Adobe Illustrator)

3.       Worked with the “Fill” and “Stroke” tools

4.       Learned how to constrain proportions by use of the Shift Key

5.       Learned how to resize shapes

6.       Learned to rotate shapes (and identify anchor corner)

7.       Learned how to set more options for shape tools

8.       Learned about the Pencil Tool and preferences

9.       Experimented with the Pen tool to see how it differs from the Pencil Tool

10.   Worked with Layer Tool (Note:   There is a problem with the graphic on the top of page 11 of the Lab Exercise)

11.   Experimented with arranging layers.   Similar to other programs I have used, so not totally foreign

12.   Learned about the Text tools

13.   Amazed by the “Type on a Path” tool.   (It doesn’t take much to amaze me).

14.   Extracted Lab Data out to S:\Cartography\Illustrator\cities_feb04

15.   Extracted Lab Data out to S:\Cartography\Illustrator\cntbnd_jun11

16.   Started ArcMap

17.   Added the Cities and County Boundaries to the map

18.   Switched to Layout View and zoomed to extent

19.   Inserted Neatline with a border width of 3

20.   Added a Scale Bar and set it to show “useful” delineations (50, 100, 200)

21.   Added a Legend as instructed

22.   Modified the symbology to show “Cities” and “County Boundary”

23.   Added a border to the Legend.   Seeing the “gap” function there answers a question I had about how to do that in previous labs.

24.   Exported the map out to an Adobe Illustrator file

25.   Saw the following message

26.   Selected “Update”

27.   Selected “Fit On Screen”

28.   Opened Layer Tool

29.   Named the Neatline

30.   Added the “Legend” and “North Arrow” Layers

31.   Moved the North Arrow to its layer

32.   Moved the Legend related items to the “Legend” Layer

33.   At this point my Layers look like this:

34.   Renamed the “City Group” and the “County Group” and changed their color

35.   Moved the Cities Group and the Scale Bar Group to be under the County Group.  Looks like this will definitely take some practice in future labs

36.   Deleted the non essential layers (Cites, Scale Bar, and “Other 2”)

37.   After rearranging the layers and renaming them for clarity.   My layers now look like this:

38.   I tried to do the direct selection tool and resize, but didn’t have any success

39.   I posted a message in the discussion forum to see if anyone else was having a similar problem so I could learn from them.

40.   After checking the forum I determined how to properly resize the boundary

41.   Added the Text Elements and put it in the proper layer in Illustrator

42.   Exported out to Jpeg and updated Blog and DropBox

And finally here is my metadata:

Layer	Data Type	Publication Information: Who Created The Data?	Time Period Data Is Relevant	Spatial Horizontal Coordinate System	Attribute Values
Cities_feb04	Point	UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA GEOPLAN CENTER	revised version of the December 2003 map layer	Albers Conical Equal Area (Florida Geographic Data Library)	1116 Attributes
Cntbnd_jul11	Polygon	FGDL	June 2011 (update of the FGDL Version 2003 County Boundaries dataset)	Albers Conical Equal Area [Florida Geographic Data Library]	67 Attributes