Customer Reviews

Designing Better Maps: A Guide for GIS Users

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I don't know how many of the people that will be reading this review have ever bought a book from ESRI. Let it be said that their books are usually for the beginning and lower-intermediate class of GIS users. I purchased this book before it was even published in the hopes that it would break that norm and offer something like the description states. From everything that their marketing wizards say about the book, one would expect a quality map design product that would really highlite layout, composition, etc. Wrong.

Advanced users, or anyone who even thinks they have the slightest notion on map design, do not buy this book! Chances are if you think to yourself, "I make pretty decent maps", then you will gain nothing from this book. This book should only be purchased by beginning users or people who have been told that their maps look like absolute crap. If you make north arrows that take up 1/4 of your map, you need this book. If you are a little wary about your ability to choose color, do not buy this book. Instead, focus on buying books in the Art section that will help you improve your color understanding and picking abilities.

There is very little information of use in here for advanced users, that is why I am rating this so low. This is an acceptable book for beginners, though not the best I have seen. Again, my gripe with ESRI is that they pull together just enough vague information to publish a book on a subject without really telling you anything that you couldn't figure out on your own.

This is a comprehensive book that covers all aspects of good map design. It is especially useful for those without a cartography or graphic design background. Unlike other map design books that cover way too much irrelevant material; it's easy to follow and gives enough information to help new and experienced GIS users create maps that are focused and easy to read. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to design better maps.

Cindy Brewer is one of the nation's experts on cartographic design and color usage and everyone should learn from her. Check out her other book on Mapping the Census 2000 for beautiful and informative map examples.

Designing Better Maps: A Guide for GIS Users is a guide to cartography, written in response to advances in digital mapping and geographic information system (GIS) software and illustrated throughout with map samples in color. With such increasingly widespread tools, more analysts, researchers, planners, graphic designers, and lay people lacking basic cartography training have been creating maps that appear slick on the surface but contain internal flaws due to common beginner mistakes. Designing Better Maps seeks to rectify such errors by offering a basic cartographic education for non-cartographers. Chapters cover the basics in type, color and color decisions, customizing symbols, properly designed marginal elements, and more. An easy-to-follow resource and a "must-have" for anyone working with GIS software who has little prior training or experience in mapmaking.

This book reviews the very basics of map design and hardly touches on cartographic representations. It is probably a good starting point for first timers to GIS and mapping, but for the average map maker/cartographer it is too rudimentary.

Since I am relatively new to the world of GIS Mapping, this book was an invaluable aid to designing more attractive maps. It's a beautifully laid-out book with lots of common-sense tips in it. Well worth the price!

Linda Pierce
Pray, Montana

This book is the first one I would recommend to the typical GIS user wanting to make better maps. Some other reviewers have commented that many of the suggestions are basic; however, I have seen countless maps that could benefit from the design suggestions presented here.

There are much better books than this. See Tufte's "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information". Several of his examples deal with maps. But even when that narrative does not, the principles of clean visual display should still be kept in mind, when designing a map.

Brewer's use of GIS is really neither here nor there, when it comes to mapping. The design of what appears on a map should be considered independent of where the data comes from.

I originally found this book in my school library and decided to buy one for myself. It's a great guide map design on the use of fonts, color, labeling, etc. and great illustrations, but it not a step by step guide book.

This book addresses all major topics needed when considering what color to assign to a group of layers, which symbols and scales to use, how to annotate maps and how to complement maps with text boxes.

It is well written so it's easy reading and does not require extensive background from other fields.

Getting from here to there is simple enough by scanning the chapter index.

Great reference for map designers, both beginners and experienced ones.

I bought this book for a class I am taking. Fine for beginners, but there is not much of substance. I would have liked more technical detail.