ABSTRACT
Cartography is the process of making a map; the cartographic process blends art, science, and technology. The science of cartography primarily revolves around the psychology of reading and interpreting signs and symbols. The research cartographers have helped to improve communication between map and reader by creating new symbolization methods. The chapter examines the basic types of maps: thematic, reference, and cartometric. It presents a basic overview of the map abstraction process. The chapter discusses the visual variables include shape, orientation, pattern, color hue, color value, color saturation, and size. It explores various map reading tasks and the impacts that projections have on the ability of the map reader to successfully carry out these tasks. The chapter provides the example given which dealt with the dot method, how the projection distortion can alter the size of the enumeration unit, and how that alteration of size impacts the visual perceptibility of the dot distribution.
