A concise, down-to-earth guide to creating maps using GIS, this book is visually engaging, clear, and compelling--exactly how an effective map should be. Featuring over 300 maps and other figures, including instructive examples of both good and poor design choices, the book covers everything from locating and processing data to making decisions about layout, map symbols, color, and type. For students, professionals, and others who want to make better maps, this is an essential, uniquely helpful resource. The author's website (http://makingmaps.owu.edu) offers excerpts from each chapter, links to related sites, and a regularly updated blog on the topic of making maps.
 |
Shop the Amazon.com Textbooks Store and save up to 70% on textbook rentals, 90% on used textbooks and 60% on eTextbooks. |
|
There is a newer edition of this item:
|
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"This detailed guide to elementary mapping in the age of digital information, Internet resources, and geographic information systems is simple, clear, and comprehensive. The book's lucid style and dramatic, apposite, and often funny illustrations make it a novel and effective resource in a culture where the map is a ubiquitous presence. More than an instruction manual on making maps, it is also a guide to their critical reading and interpretation. Making Maps will be invaluable for users as well as creators of maps at the university level and beyond."--Denis Cosgrove, Department of Geography, University of California, Los Angeles
"Although it looks deceptively simple--like the textbook equivalent of a graphic novel--Making Maps condenses all the essential principles of map making and the geographic concepts behind them into a remarkably accessible, witty, engaging book. The text is crystal clear and irreverent, the hundreds of illustrations inspiring and memorable. Only Krygier and Wood, two of the most creative geographers on the planet, could come up with this breakthrough visualization of the art and science of making good maps. Novice and even experienced cartographers will find it an indispensable guide."--Anne Knowles, Department of Geography, Middlebury College
"A unique and timely book that provides much-needed guidance to GIS users making thematic maps. One strength of the book is that principles of map design are often best shown by visual example, and another is that the examples are not tied to any one GIS software package. Cartographically sound and very approachable, this book will help readers ensure that the maps they make are clear, legible and easy to understand."--Barbara P. Buttenfield, Department of Geography, University of Colorado, Boulder
"Although it looks deceptively simple--like the textbook equivalent of a graphic novel--Making Maps condenses all the essential principles of map making and the geographic concepts behind them into a remarkably accessible, witty, engaging book. The text is crystal clear and irreverent, the hundreds of illustrations inspiring and memorable. Only Krygier and Wood, two of the most creative geographers on the planet, could come up with this breakthrough visualization of the art and science of making good maps. Novice and even experienced cartographers will find it an indispensable guide."--Anne Knowles, Department of Geography, Middlebury College
"A unique and timely book that provides much-needed guidance to GIS users making thematic maps. One strength of the book is that principles of map design are often best shown by visual example, and another is that the examples are not tied to any one GIS software package. Cartographically sound and very approachable, this book will help readers ensure that the maps they make are clear, legible and easy to understand."--Barbara P. Buttenfield, Department of Geography, University of Colorado, Boulder
About the Author
John Krygier is a geographer with degrees from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and The Pennsylvania State University. He has extensive experience with map design and production, and has taught mapping and GIS at Penn State, the University of Oregon, The Ohio State University, and the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. He is past president of the North American Cartographic Information Society, and the editor of the journal Cartographic Perspectives. He teaches mapping, GIS, and geography at Ohio Wesleyan University, and lives in Columbus, Ohio.
Denis Wood curated the Smithsonian’s award-winning Power of Maps exhibition and wrote the bestselling The Power of Maps (Guilford). More recently he has published Seeing Through Maps (ODT) and Five Billion Years of Global Change: A History of the Land (Guilford). He is an independent scholar living in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Denis Wood curated the Smithsonian’s award-winning Power of Maps exhibition and wrote the bestselling The Power of Maps (Guilford). More recently he has published Seeing Through Maps (ODT) and Five Billion Years of Global Change: A History of the Land (Guilford). He is an independent scholar living in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book should be required reading for anyone who is allowed to make maps with a GIS. It's actually a pretty quick read (3-4 hours for me) thanks to its concise and tightly organized text set in context of some very clean and simple graphics. There is even a healthy dash of humor (so welcome in technical writing), genuinely funny but always in service of the text.
Read this book to avoid the classic mistakes that all neophyte mapmakers commit.
Read this book to avoid the classic mistakes that all neophyte mapmakers commit.
18 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I was honestly disappointed with this book, so much so, that I returned it to the seller. Although the subject matter it contains is quite good, the layout and presentation leave a great deal to be desired, especially for a book that is focused on cartography and which costs over $40.
My 2 greatest irritations with it were the following: 1) There is virtually no color in the book, with the exception of a few color plates in the middle. 2) Although the book's dimensions are roughly 9" x 7", the material contained inside appears to have been formatted for a small paperback. On average, it appears each page contains more than 50% whitespace. It feels like you are looking at a reduced slide show presentation that was converted into a grayscale printout.
My advice to prospective buyers of this book is to buy a copy of Monmonier's classic, "How to Lie with Maps", and Cynthia Brewer's excellent, "Designing Better Maps - A Guide for GIS Users" instead. The cost will be about the same - for 2 books.
To the authors of this book I say, "Nice try, but c'mon, you can do better than this. You're cartographers for Pete's sake!"
My 2 greatest irritations with it were the following: 1) There is virtually no color in the book, with the exception of a few color plates in the middle. 2) Although the book's dimensions are roughly 9" x 7", the material contained inside appears to have been formatted for a small paperback. On average, it appears each page contains more than 50% whitespace. It feels like you are looking at a reduced slide show presentation that was converted into a grayscale printout.
My advice to prospective buyers of this book is to buy a copy of Monmonier's classic, "How to Lie with Maps", and Cynthia Brewer's excellent, "Designing Better Maps - A Guide for GIS Users" instead. The cost will be about the same - for 2 books.
To the authors of this book I say, "Nice try, but c'mon, you can do better than this. You're cartographers for Pete's sake!"
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Prill Lake
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I bought this based on the reviews here at Amazon. This book presents some good ideas, most of which are intuitive, and in totality makes for a decent desk reference for the cartographer. However, as someone else has pointed out, the formatting of the information on the page is unimpressive and I would add, confounding and hard to read.
Most of the example maps in this book are black & white, and somewhat randomly placed in a sea of white space. After reading I'm still wondering what the author is trying to say with his stylistic choices. In either case it certainly weakens Krygier's point of view on 'a Visual Guide to map Design' imo. 'General mapping ideas presented in a pseudo-minimalist fashion' would make for a better title. Props for including a nude though.
-> Buy one of Brewer's books, you won't be disappointed.
Most of the example maps in this book are black & white, and somewhat randomly placed in a sea of white space. After reading I'm still wondering what the author is trying to say with his stylistic choices. In either case it certainly weakens Krygier's point of view on 'a Visual Guide to map Design' imo. 'General mapping ideas presented in a pseudo-minimalist fashion' would make for a better title. Props for including a nude though.
-> Buy one of Brewer's books, you won't be disappointed.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
good product
this is a good product. it has nice color maps and very visual. lots of good ideas and techniques.
Published on June 22, 2009 by Benjamin E. Massey
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very Helpful
Very Helpful book.
As a GIS student at the university of Washington, this book was recommended by our professor to help design our maps. Read more
As a GIS student at the university of Washington, this book was recommended by our professor to help design our maps. Read more
Published on February 16, 2009 by G. Lund
2.0 out of 5 stars
Very limited in scope
This is not a bad book, but the title and description bear almost no relation to its content. The audience of the book seems to be people who have occasional use for maps, but... Read more
Published on August 14, 2008 by Adam Baker
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not very comprehensive
This was not quite the book I was looking for. It doesn't cover the topics very comprehensively. I was hoping for a book which talked more specifically about map design(i.e. Read more
Published on August 4, 2007 by Espen Isaksen
5.0 out of 5 stars
Nice book
I'm newly employed with GIS. I use ArcMap to make maps of properties for a real estate developer. This book was nice in many ways. Read more
Published on April 4, 2007 by Alan Silverman
4.0 out of 5 stars
Why make maps
What makes this book exception is not its clear design and simple text. It's a book about making maps, after all. One would hope the design was adequate. Read more
Published on January 15, 2006 by T. Koch
5.0 out of 5 stars
Simple and Effective
While I do a lot of GIS work and never took a cartography course when I started my career in geography research work. Read more
Published on December 27, 2005 by Carlos Silva
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
So You'd Like to...
Look for Similar Items by Category
- Books > Education & Reference > Atlases & Maps
- Books > New, Used & Rental Textbooks > Engineering
- Books > New, Used & Rental Textbooks > Science & Mathematics > Earth Sciences
- Books > New, Used & Rental Textbooks > Science & Mathematics > Environmental Studies
- Books > New, Used & Rental Textbooks > Social Sciences > Archaeology
- Books > New, Used & Rental Textbooks > Social Sciences > Sociology
- Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Archaeology
- Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Sociology
- Books > Professional & Technical > Engineering > Computer Technology
- Books > Science & Math > Earth Sciences > Cartography
- Books > Science & Math > Earth Sciences > Environmental Science
- Books > Science & Math > Earth Sciences > Geography > Regional
- Books > Science & Math > History & Philosophy
