Customer Reviews

Thematic Cartography and Geographic Visualization (2nd Edition) (Prentice Hall Series in Geographic Information Science)

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

 

 

Thematic Cartography and Geographic Visualization, Second Edition

This book is the required text for a Cartography course I am taking as part of a degree in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The text is well written, and very well organized. The chapters are short enough and deliver the right amount of theory to be read and absorbed in one sitting. The book addresses classical cartographic issues as well as modern digital mapping and GIS.

Where the book fails miserably is in its layout. I expect that a book that costs as much as this one did, and which relies on colour plates will be printed in full colour from cover to cover. However, all the colour plates have been collected near the back of the book. This wouldn't be a big deal but for the constant references in the text inviting one to make comparisons between the black and white figures which are inset, and colour plates at the back: lot's of flipping back and forth, breaking the flow.

Like I said, the contents is very good, but for $121, you can keep the hard cover, but give me a full colour textbook with inset colour figures and diagrams.

I teach beginning and advanced cartography, and this is the textbook I use. It features up-to-date and comprehensive coverage of cartographic theory and practice.

It is not tied to any particular software (such as ArcGIS). This could be a minus if you are trying to teach yourself. It is also quite expensive. However, it can be used in multiple courses.

This book provides a very comprehensive review of all aspects associated with map background knowledge necessary to create visually compelling maps, either on screen displays or plot layouts.

It is not for novices and math background is required to fully exploit all the chapters devoted to data clustering for proper map layer design.

Definitely worth reading.

The book was delivered in the time frame that was given and it was in very good condition. Thank you for selling a great product!