7 replies to this topic

[JB Krygier]

Hi Cartotalk,

A link to 3 examples of maps I produced back in the day, with scribers, technical
pens, stick-up type, and photomechanical methods. I was probably among the
last to learn these traditional methods, and I was there when the little Mac SE
came out of the box and we installed Illustrator 1.0 (dooming the scribers, pens,
and darkroom...).

The first map is hand shaded relief (does anyone do this anymore?) from my
advanced map design class.

The second was a collaborative project with David DiBiase, who went on to run
the GeoGraphics Lab at Penn State, and now runs the e-Education Institute there.
Scribers, stick-up type, etc. Scanned in several pieces.

The third is a campus map for UC Boulder. I wore out several sets of technical
pens with this one (and at least one sonic pen cleaner). Click on the thumbnails
here to get larger scans:

http://makingmaps.ow...log.html#8_4_05

I assume some of you knew how to make maps the old way - is anyone still
using such manual methods?

john k.

[Nick Springer]

Wonderful traditional examples! I love the voyager map, and the shading on the moriane map is very life-like.

I too came into cartography at the very end of the manual era. My first maps were created in the Syracuse University Cartographics Lab under Mike Kirchoff, using line tape and rub-on letters to create bus route maps for Onondaga County.

Likewise we were amazed with the Mac SE that arrived along with a laser printer. We then could print out whole sheets of labels, wax the back, cut them out, and past them down. What a revolution

Within a year or two we were using Freehand 1.0 to create entire maps and output them directly to a Linotronic. Full electronic workflow, oh my.

[frax]

amazing, i especially liked the thunderstorms on the voyager map.

[Hans van der Maarel]

John,

Great work on that Voyager map. Absolutely stunning.

When I entered college, 1995, the digital era was just beginning. We did get some manual techniques in the first year (mostly drawing and inking survey plots, rather than actual maps), then moved over to digital (programming AML on PC-ArcInfo...)

[mike]

very nice work. ufortunately, i didn't get a chance to try "true" cartography and entered into gis and cartography at the digital age. i met David Dibiase through Cynthia Brewer at the ESRI User Conference. Seems like a very knowledgeable guy.

[Rick Dey]

John,

Thanks for sharing those great examples especially the Voyager map. They brought back memories of scribe dust all over my shirts. I too learned prior to the use of computers in Cartography or really just as they were being started. At Northridge we had access to an early CalComp plotter and were trying to implement some software on the CDC 3300 using boxes and boxes of punch cards. We were really cutting edge producing the California Water Atlas in 1978 using scribing and lots of PeelCoat and the hot new Linotype typesetter. We were also fortunate to have an excellent lab and darkroom to be able to learn production techniques.

Here at CSAA we retired the last of our scibecoats as recently as 4 years ago. It took 12 years to make the transition and redraw all our maps on the computer while continuing to keep them updated. We still have our complete darkroom, although its only used for storage and historical tours. One thing I don't miss is type stick-up. Cutting individual letters to make a word because you didn't put something on the original type order, and then finding the perfect combination of letters only to have one fly away, finding it later stuck to your elbow. I believe that at Auto Club Southern California they still have some titles being done manually, they are in the midst of conversion.

[Kartograph]

Dear John,

While looking at your fabolous maps two things ocurred to me:

1) There is a gap between any computer generated graphics and hand made graphics.
hand mades look somehow more natural, especially with cgi-animations compared to old fashioned movie techniques. Although computer cartography has made big leaps and bounds, something of the "haptic" and "natural" qualities of , for example the moraine map of yours, is lost in comp-mapmaking. It´s very hard to emulate. Methinks people like Tom Patterson and Martin of Alpine Mapping Guild fame have done a great job, but most uf us still lack those skills.

2) Your essay about cartography being dead really made me think. I just had my final exam in my cartography minor and am fully laden with academic nomenclature and termini technici which are at least of dubious usability. I also had history of scientific cartography as a subject. One can say that for the better half of it´s existence one can say that german scientific cartography consisted of discussions how to put the science into mapmaking. Actually this discussion continues over here. Here we also have a whole bunch of faculties which do only produce so called "engineer cartographers" (equivalent to a Ms. I think) so the discipline seems to be here to stay. Maybe this belongs somewhere else.

Regards,

Andreas

[Kartograph]

Regarding cartographic labs:

At my university, they had a big lab. Two people were hired to run it along with others. Now the lab isn´t used any more and the people who were hired aren´t needed either but can´t be fired due to lifelong contracts. Now they do whatever they are up to in their subterranean museum of cartography equipment, for better or good...
Isn´t there a Tom Petty song:
"cartographer without a cause..."?

Best wishes,

Andreas