A #PractiCarto Archive

For the past few months, on Twitter, I’ve been posting brief practical cartography tips every Tuesday using the #PractiCarto hashtag. You can click on the tweet below to read a thread with my whole rationale, but the short version is: by keeping it short, it makes it easy for me to share, and it makes it easy for the reader to pay attention — and thus, I hope, there are more chances to share knowledge.

Was going to write a blog post about the philosophy behind #PractiCarto, but that seems a mismatch, so here’s a bunch of tweets instead.

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) November 17, 2016

This blog post is simply meant to collect my own #PractiCarto tweets all in one place. A few colleagues have also made use of the hashtag, which is great and exactly what I was hoping for.

Stephen Smith has put together a little notifier that will send you an email every time someone uses the hashtag, so that you’ll never miss out on useful mapping advice.

My #PractiCarto Archive

A recent useful discovery in Illustrator. pic.twitter.com/X0IZOuOnPw

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) August 12, 2016

#Practicarto 2: Round corners in Illustrator when you want simple linework without the vectory jaggedness. pic.twitter.com/8488FWmnRl

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) August 16, 2016

#Practicarto 3: I sometimes set up hypso/bathymetric tints on a DEM in Photoshop using the Gradient Map tool pic.twitter.com/TLodkvCVMK

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) August 23, 2016

#Practicarto 4: Can give flat polygons a little definition by adding an inner glow in Illustrator (or Photoshop) pic.twitter.com/WrfuVprrKp

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) August 30, 2016

#Practicarto 5: Illustrator’s Shapebuilder tool is invaluable when I’m doing tracing (& in many other situations). pic.twitter.com/lpeOPj48ta

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) September 6, 2016

#Practicarto 6: Making clipping masks from the menu ruins your layers; use the layers panel button instead. pic.twitter.com/sICfgZemgz

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) September 13, 2016

#PractiCarto 7: I made this snow/ice cover in Photoshop look more ice-like by lightening the relief in that area & tinting it blue. pic.twitter.com/jHrbkt6CLz

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) September 20, 2016

#PractiCarto 8: Illustrator’s Blend tool makes quick color schemes. Caveat: won't be exactly perceptually even, if that’s important to you. pic.twitter.com/3D2JCJIBKV

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) September 27, 2016

#PractiCarto 9: A fill & stroke on an Illustrator clipping mask become background and border line, respectively. pic.twitter.com/Y8UKSGGXGM

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) October 4, 2016

#PractiCarto 10: Hold Alt & drag to make copies of objects, appearances, and more in Illustrator (& other Adobe products). pic.twitter.com/VQWXbotMnS

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) October 11, 2016

#PractiCarto 11: A subtle bevel in Photoshop adds a little depth cue, embedding water in the landscape. pic.twitter.com/tuqRcbEBUn

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) October 25, 2016

#PractiCarto 12: To space labels evenly from dots, add a thick stroke, place labels, then remove the stroke. pic.twitter.com/i5reM9IJ31

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) November 1, 2016

#PractiCarto 13: Offset Path effect is the equivalent of a GIS buffer operation. I use it for making waterlines. https://t.co/qEtGglj2DT

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) November 8, 2016

#PractiCarto 14: Double hemisphere maps are made by clipping & joining two planar projections with opposite centers. pic.twitter.com/hCFh86d5Iw

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) November 15, 2016

#PractiCarto 15: In a pinch, you can sneak by with too-detailed linework by not putting a stroke on it. pic.twitter.com/R9X3OwSdMM

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) November 22, 2016

#PractiCarto 16: Photoshop's Spot Healing brush is good for eliminating relief artifacts, like these survey tracks from a seafloor DEM. pic.twitter.com/KyX1AMqdBd

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) November 29, 2016

#PractiCarto 17: When adding tracking to labels, don’t forget to turn off ligatures. pic.twitter.com/3Ugm4afJwH

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) December 6, 2016

#PractiCarto 18: Unclassed symbology needn’t be linear. Taking a square root, log, etc. of data can show differences that would be unseen. pic.twitter.com/rTIqMq1b8q

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) December 13, 2016

#PractiCarto 19: I like to take % vegetation data, use it as a mask on a PS fill layer, then set it to Dissolve to give a little texture. pic.twitter.com/C38TfpIkaL

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) December 20, 2016

#PractiCarto 20: For graduated symbols, I find a constant ratio between steps to be more visually even than linearly scaling area/diameter. pic.twitter.com/azGIZ0cV2m

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) January 3, 2017

#PractiCarto 21: The italics of some typefaces (often those with “Pro” in the name) have optional swash capitals, which add a nice touch. pic.twitter.com/rcTdqmHbYh

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) January 10, 2017

#PractiCarto 22: It was many years before I paid attention to the “transform patterns” checkbox in Illustrator — it’s really handy. pic.twitter.com/6ZLywSaYKn

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) January 17, 2017

#PractiCarto 23: A photo dropped onto a map can look unintegrated. Try a shadow, maybe with a frame, and even a jaunty angle if appropriate. pic.twitter.com/ZzAvacf8Ci

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) January 24, 2017

#PractiCarto 24: One solution for a border overlapping a river: sometimes I just run them parallel (useful here: AI's Offset Path tool). pic.twitter.com/5G1LsONEB9

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) January 31, 2017

#PractiCarto 25: In Illustrator, you can use a feathered black box in an opacity mask to cause parts of objects to gracefully fade in. pic.twitter.com/b2EAWy9FE4

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) February 7, 2017

#PractiCarto 26: @kelsosCorner's Find & Replace graphics script is a huge timesaver. Download + instructions: https://t.co/OmAdhb5ZVy pic.twitter.com/j4JNrfqT2n

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) February 14, 2017

#PractiCarto 27: If your font doesn't have proper small caps, programs will just shrink full caps and the letter weights will look wrong. pic.twitter.com/Tx7MRx1Kmc

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) February 21, 2017

#PractiCarto 28: Need a seafloor DEM? Check out Tom Patterson's CleanTOPO2. Artifact-free at 2' resolution. https://t.co/nsgib7vFNq pic.twitter.com/ptjwTM3KCN

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) February 28, 2017

#PractiCarto 29: Waterlines & other coastal effects can allow land & water to both be white, and thus save space in your color palette. pic.twitter.com/o7VUDI6NcO

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) March 7, 2017

#PractiCarto 30: A classed tint (on smoothed DEM if needed) can help mask data deficiencies & artifacts that would show up in a relief. pic.twitter.com/xXlj3vi80i

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) March 14, 2017

#PractiCarto 31: My go-to for global DEMs (h/t Tom Patterson); data painstakingly assembled from multiple sources: https://t.co/aTaU2QJied

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) March 21, 2017

#PractiCarto 32: An orthographic or a vertical perspective projection can give a striking immediacy, convey vastness, and focus the subject. pic.twitter.com/pVpy15WPNL

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) March 28, 2017

#PractiCarto 33: A quick & basic way to add texture: put an image on the bottom layer, then put content on top set to multiply. pic.twitter.com/opRWHLakfX

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) April 4, 2017

#PractiCarto 34: Illustrator can vary stroke width along a path, allowing elegant tapering of rivers. pic.twitter.com/lj1r9wgiQ1

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) April 11, 2017

#PractiCarto 35: Noise textures & gradients (used sparingly) can help make flat-colored spaces look more interesting & organic. pic.twitter.com/wRVrxqp6v1

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) April 18, 2017

#PractiCarto 36: I use Color Oracle (https://t.co/4I79BTOgSM) to ensure my maps are legible to those with color vision impairments. pic.twitter.com/6qebQvE9M0

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) April 25, 2017

#PractiCarto 37: If revising colors isn't possible, the use of shapes or addition of labels can still make a map more colorblind-friendly. pic.twitter.com/LNpm7bRHef

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) May 2, 2017

#PractiCarto 38: Those little rectangles showing one map's footprint within another are called Extent Indicators in ArcMap. pic.twitter.com/gn2p6or5lP

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) May 9, 2017

#PractiCarto 39: Colorblindness /mostly/ causes hue confusion. Saturation makes them more separable; or, bypass with differing lightness. pic.twitter.com/jB5X7kOV5V

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) May 16, 2017

#PractiCarto 40: If your type isn't contrasting well with the background (& you can't change its color), adding a subtle shadow can help. pic.twitter.com/HOk4WmjCOS

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) May 23, 2017

#PractiCarto 41: You can convert units and do basic math when entering dimensions in many Adobe dialogue boxes. pic.twitter.com/48Q4fHuO5G

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) May 30, 2017

#PractiCarto 42: The more you can describe things with labels, the less your readers will need to shift back and forth to check a legend. pic.twitter.com/Tir0lHrT0v

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) June 6, 2017

#PractiCarto 43: You can create a stronger association between a feature & its label by using the same or similar colors for each. pic.twitter.com/JGixU9urxd

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) June 13, 2017

#PractiCarto 44: By adjusting lightness and/or saturation, you can focus attention on subject areas while keeping their geographic context. pic.twitter.com/l3U0SdzUwi

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) June 20, 2017

#PractiCarto 45: For an object grid in Illustrator: set Keyboard Increment for spacing, then arrow keys + Alt (Alt = make copy when moving). pic.twitter.com/OrYXEkbMEs

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) June 27, 2017

#PractiCarto 46: You can layer data clearly by making good use of negative space, such as these invisible-but-shadowed arrows. pic.twitter.com/CbW7hs228U

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) July 11, 2017

#PractiCarto 47: I often use Overpass Turbo (thanks to @vancematthews) to quickly grab OSM data for small areas: https://t.co/NaCG7dgMI4 pic.twitter.com/WmDqktera4

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) July 18, 2017

#PractiCarto 48: I find legends, text, etc. integrate better when the map simply fades gracefully, rather than putting elements in boxes. pic.twitter.com/IP3TbjlfhQ

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) July 25, 2017

#PractiCarto 49: I use an inverted copy of my map to mask type halos, so that they fade in and out based on how much contrast is needed. pic.twitter.com/vJtV3TmRP1

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) August 15, 2017

#PractiCarto 50: Census Cartographic Boundary files are a great place to find variety of US political subdivisions. https://t.co/1uSLNCj3dK

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) August 1, 2017

#PractiCarto 51: Ranges of numbers require an en dash, rather than a hyphen; they’ll also look a little nicer that way. pic.twitter.com/5Y9VXNJssv

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) August 8, 2017

#PractiCarto 52: Instead of labeling each range in a legend, I think looks cleaner to label each class break & avoid repeated numbers. pic.twitter.com/rGpFFORd8B

— Daniel P. Huffman (@pinakographos) August 22, 2017