"Cartographer" redirects here. For other uses, see Cartographer (disambiguation).
"Cartographist" redirects here. For the song, see Shrines (Purity Ring album).
A medieval depiction of the Ecumene (1482, Johannes Schnitzer, engraver), constructed after the coordinates in Ptolemy's Geography and using his second map projection. The translation into Latin and dissemination of Geography in Europe, in the beginning of the 15th century, marked the rebirth of scientific cartography, after more than a millennium of stagnation.
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Cartography (/kɑːrˈtɒɡrəfi/; from Ancient Greek: χάρτηςchartēs, 'papyrus, sheet of paper, map'; and γράφεινgraphein, 'write') is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an imagined reality) can be modeled in ways that communicate spatial information effectively.
The fundamental objectives of traditional cartography are to:
Set the map's agenda and select traits of the object to be mapped. This is the concern of map editing. Traits may be physical, such as roads or land masses, or may be abstract, such as toponyms or political boundaries.
Represent the terrain of the mapped object on flat media. This is the concern of map projections.
Eliminate the mapped object's characteristics that are irrelevant to the map's purpose. This is the concern of generalization.
Reduce the complexity of the characteristics that will be mapped. This is also the concern of generalization.
Orchestrate the elements of the map to best convey its message to its audience. This is the concern of map design.
Modern cartography constitutes many theoretical and practical foundations of geographic information systems (GIS) and geographic information science (GISc).
Cartography (/kɑːrˈtɒɡrəfi/; from Ancient Greek: χάρτης chartēs, 'papyrus, sheet of paper, map'; and γράφειν graphein, 'write') is the study and practice...
maps. Cartography or map-making is the study and practice of crafting representations of the Earth upon a flat surface (see History of cartography), and...
The history of cartography refers to the development and consequences of cartography, or mapmaking technology, throughout human history. Maps have been...
geography, which included "Ptolemaic cartographic theory." However, the concepts of geography (such as cartography) date back to the earliest attempts...
Computer cartography (also called digital cartography) is the art, science, and technology of making and using maps with a computer. This technology represents...
The Cartographic Journal (first published June 1964) is an established peer-reviewed academic journal of record and comment that is published on behalf...
Medieval Islamic geography and cartography refer to the study of geography and cartography in the Muslim world during the Islamic Golden Age (variously...
The International Cartographic Association (ICA) (French: Association Cartographique Internationale, ACI) is an organization formed of national member...
representing individuals. The academic study of symbols is semiotics. In cartography, an organized collection of symbols forms a legend for a map. The word...
cartography requires exact and unchanging coordinates, the averaged[citation needed] locations of geographical poles are taken as fixed cartographic poles...
In linguistics, Cartographic syntax, or simply Cartography, is a branch of Generative syntax. The basic assumption of Cartographic syntax is that syntactic...
The British Cartographic Society (BCS) is an association of individuals and organisations dedicated to exploring and developing the world of maps. It is...
In cartography, a map projection is any of a broad set of transformations employed to represent the curved two-dimensional surface of a globe on a plane...
The earliest cartographic depictions of Europe are found in early world maps. In classical antiquity, Europe was assumed to cover the quarter of the globe...
Planetary cartography, or cartography of extraterrestrial objects (CEO), is the cartography of solid objects outside of the Earth. Planetary maps can...
The cartography of the region of Palestine, also known as cartography of the Holy Land and cartography of the Land of Israel, is the creation, editing...
The cartography of India begins with early charts for navigation and constructional plans for buildings. Indian traditions influenced Tibetan and Islamic...
Cartographic propaganda is a map created with the goal of achieving a result similar to traditional propaganda. The map can be outright falsified, or created...
Chinese cartography began in the 5th century BC during the Warring States period when cartographers started to make maps of the Earth's surface. Its scope...
Celestial cartography, uranography, astrography or star cartography[citation needed] is the aspect of astronomy and branch of cartography concerned with...
Critical cartography is a set of mapping practices and methods of analysis grounded in critical theory, specifically the thesis that maps reflect and...
Terrain cartography or relief mapping is the depiction of the shape of the surface of the Earth on a map, using one or more of several techniques that...
recently uncovered, particularly in West Africa and Ethiopia. The earliest cartographic depictions of Africa are found in early world maps. In classical antiquity...
Volume Cartography is the name of a computer program for locating and mapping 2-dimensional surfaces within a 3-dimensional object.X-rays can reveal minute...
Fantasy cartography, fictional map-making, or geofiction is a type of map design that visually presents an imaginary world or concept, or represents a...
Cartographic generalization, or map generalization, includes all changes in a map that are made when one derives a smaller-scale map from a larger-scale...
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