ABSTRACT
Map layout concerns the arrangement of all the different elements of a map before publication. It may include the map body or data frame, title, legend, insets, charts and supplementary figures or graphics, north arrow, scalebar, border and various other elements within the marginalia. A map's layout often requires some experimentation, perhaps even 'trial and error'. In the past one might have sketched the layout in advance, which remains a useful planning technique, but now in modern Geographic Information Systems (GIS), graphics packages and other publication software, it is very easy to move and resize each component of the map. Visual hierarchy in map composition decides which of the map's components to promote and emphasize over others in order to best communicate the overall map. The subject and story of a map affects the importance of the features and components within it. For the cartography of the body of the map, figure-ground is something of an over-simplistic notion.
