map making Archives - Geography Realm

A cropped view of a map with a north arrow in bold black with the letter "N" on top of it. A section of Texas and Louisiana can be seen at the top of the image.

Should You Put a North Arrow on a Map?

October 24, 2022 by Caitlin Dempsey

Do all maps need a north arrow?

Small scale map showing Chicago (upper map) and a large scale map showing a neighborhood in Chicago (lower map).

Map Scale

February 1, 2021November 12, 2014 by Caitlin Dempsey

The relationship between the real world size of a geographic feature and its representative feature on a map is known as scale.

Hexagonal binning map showing the locations of 3,000 Walmart stores in the United States.

Making Maps with D3

January 7, 2013 by Caitlin Dempsey

D3 is a JavaScript data visualization library using HTML, SVG and CSS. D3 stands for Data Driven Documents and was developed by Mike Bostock, Jeff Heer and Vadim Ogievetsky … Read more

A screenshot of a cartography software package with a map of the United States.

Ten Things to Consider When Making a Map

September 10, 2011 by Caitlin Dempsey

Here are ten common considerations that all cartographers should incorporate as part of their map making process.

Equal Earth map projection with a natural earth shading. Map: Strebe, CC BY-SA 4.0

Basics of a Map

August 15, 2007 by Caitlin Dempsey

Learn about some basic design and concept elements when making a map.