Guide to cartography

Flow map showing Napoleon’s 1812 invasion of Russia and retreat. A beige band traces the advance from the Polish border to Moscow, shrinking as troop numbers fall from 422,000 to 100,000. A black band marks the retreat, narrowing to 10,000 survivors. Below, a temperature graph records severe winter cold during the return. Cities, rivers, and dates are annotated along the route

Introduction to cartography

An extract of Ordnance Surveys 1:25 000 Explorer mapping

Types of map

An extract of Ordnance Survey 1:25 000 Explorer legend showing tourist symbols

Symbology

Image showing the additive and subtractive colour systems

Colour

Image depicting different design variables that can be applied to text on maps

Text on maps

Image showing different map generalisation techniques

Generalisation

An image of the Ordnance Survey Head Quarters in OS MasterMap Topography Layer

Coordinate systems

Image showing equal earth map projection

Projections

Image depicting two different types of map scale bars

Scale

Image showing an extract of an Ordnance Survey 1:25 000 map legend

Map legends

Image showing examples of where map elements should be placed in order to improve usability

Map layout

An image of a map extract depicting relief representation

Relief representation

An image showing 4 different types of north arrow

North arrows

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