25 replies to this topic

[batence1986]

Hi! I'm student of cartography.
I'd like to make historical map for my diploma work. Can anyone оffer to me any suggestion for making of this kind of map. I want to use Adobe Illustrator and Avenza MAPublisher.

[Dennis McClendon]

Can you be more specific?

Most historic maps are made by simply tracing over an image of an old map, sometimes adjusting features to move them to their known positions on a modern map. For example, we may know the current correct position of a coastline or city from a 16th century map, but the exact route taken by an invading army between the coast and the city would have to be based on conjecture and topography.

[Jimbo]

Not an easy thing to do. I would start by looking for sources related to your subject such as old styled maps, depending on the subject check to see if there is GIS data available based on the year of your subject. For example you can get data based on the year of 1863 for "The Battle of Gettysburg" off the United States National Parks Site. What is the subject? And what non map or non geo-spatial sources can you get? Get ready for a lot of research relating to your subject. It can be both painful but rewarding at the same time. And ask yourself how are you going to present it? Can you find old style fonts or can you make yourself?

[Nick H]

Perhaps a good way to start would be to look at a large number of historical maps. The ICC has more than a thousand high-quality scans of European historical maps for downloading, see:

http://cartotecadigital.icc.cat/

Regards, N.

[frax]

Do you want to make a map in an old style, or a map covering a historic theme? For the first, there was an article in Cartographic Perspectives a few years ago Achieving Historical Map Effects with Modern GIS. Not sure if one can get that article in pdf format easily, but hopefully David Barnes will drop into this thread to tell you more!

[DaveB]

I would ask the same questions Hugo asked. Historical style or historical subject? For the former, what time frame and place? Look at actual examples for ideas. Some of the key items are appropriate fonts, colors, symbology and other effects. If you mean maps of historical subjects, do you want to do them in a modern style or something evocative of the period of the subject (Nick Springer has done some excellent maps in this vein)? Again, for styling look at maps of the period (and subject, if such maps are available). For historical subjects, as others have mentioned, gather research on the subject. If you have access to original sources even better.

The ESRI Mapping Center has some information, blog posts, papers and presentations, styles, etc. related to both historical styles and historical subject mapping. Of course, those will be ESRI-centric, but a lot of it can be translated to Illustrator readily enough I think. If you can be more specific about what you're looking to do I might be able to point you to specific links there.

(you can see a thumbnail of one map I did as my avatar)

[batence1986]

I'd like to make a map covering a historic theme. The map will compare same territory in the past and now.
Thanks for the suggestions received up to now.

[frax]

So what you want is some suggestions for some historic themes that could be presented in a map? The possibilities are endless... !

I was just reading the wikipedia pages about the Kingdom of Jerusalem (the medieval crusader state), just a suggestion. Or related to that: Saladin's conquest and empire, the crusades or why not my favorite: the realm of Prester John!

(I have a secret project to one day make a map of the adventures from Umberto Eco's book Baudolino)

[Nick H]

I'd like to make a map covering a historic theme. The map will compare same territory in the past and now.

Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire? If you were looking for something close to home, that is. Rather you than me, though .

Regards, N.

[batence1986]

I don't want any suggestions for the themes of the map. I'd like some suggestions about the technology of making this kind of maps, using Adobe Illustrator and MAPublisher, and then export them to Flash.

[Hans van der Maarel]

I don't want any suggestions for the themes of the map. I'd like some suggestions about the technology of making this kind of maps, using Adobe Illustrator and MAPublisher, and then export them to Flash.

The technology would be pretty much the same as when you're making a modern map, it's the styles that make the difference.

Do you have access to historical GIS data? (e.g. historical boundaries, place names and such)? If not, you'll need to find that somehow, for example by tracing it off an existing map. But once you have that in Illustrator, the process of styling isn't any different from a modern map.

[MapMedia]

Post an example of the map and ask us how you would achieve specific style elements. Coastal vignettes, symbol libraries (draw your own is a good option), fonts, etc. The more specific you are the more we can help ya.

-Chris

[David Medeiros]

As Hans said this is an issue of style not technology really. There may be some specific workflow information regarding some techniques (using textures and Photoshop to get a paper like background come to mind).

When I'm taking on a project like this where there is a particular theme I'm looking for, I like to collect as many examples of similar themes as possible and analyze them for their individual styles, symbology and features. Emulate what works, make changes to what doesn't. With historical maps you may be looking for particular styles on actual paper maps and trying to find a way to create that in Illustrator, or you may find other graphic work that has re-created the historical look and feel.

One good source for a lot old maps to look over is the David Rumsey Historical MAp Collection: http://www.davidrumsey.com/

[François Goulet]

Everything you could need has been included in that file...
http://downloads.esr...Map_Effects.zip

Styles, font, explanations, ...

Well made!

[Dennis McClendon]

Everything you could need has been included in that file...

Everything except a reason to ever do it. The finished products just make me cringe.

Using GIS for this purpose is like a dog's walking on his hinder legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.