ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the process of map-making from the point of view of what makes for good design and effective graphic communication. It summarizes the essential features of map design, and introduces the key elements of map creation. The process of compiling a map involves the editorial selection of the features to be shown on a map, and design decisions on how best to show them. Any map can show only a selection of features from the complex real world, and so the process of compilation is in many ways more about what to leave out than what to include. As maps are a graphic representation of geographic reality, the cartographer has to simplify the complex reality of the world in order to present it in an understandable way. The process of compilation of a map is in many ways more about what to leave out than what to include, and so is generalization.
