ABSTRACT
Map making — the art of cartography — is an ancient skill that involves communication, intuition, and an element of creativity. It is possible to create advanced maps using base R methods, but this chapter focuses on dedicated map-making packages. A carefully crafted map is vital for effectively communicating the results of work: Amateur-looking maps can undermine audience’s ability to understand important information and weaken the presentation of a professional data investigation. Maps have been used for several thousand years for a wide variety of purposes. The chapter shows how to make a wide range of maps and covers animated and interactive maps (including web maps and mapping applications). It also covers a range of alternative map-making packages including ggplot2 and cartogram. Static maps are the most common type of visual output from geocomputation. Fixed images for printed outputs, common formats for static maps include.png and.pdf, for raster and vector outputs, respectively.
