Mapping - Colors, Symbols, and Map Layout

Vocabulary flashcards covering map colors, symbol classifications, methods of symbol emphasis, and standard map layout elements based on the lecture text.

Black (Map Color)

The color used on maps for all man-made or cultural features, political subdivisions, placenames, grid lines, and letterings.

Blue (Map Color)

The color used on maps for water or hydrographic features such as reservoirs, rivers, lakes, canals, marshes, ponds, and wetlands.

Green (Map Color)

The color used as a surface tint or cover overlay for wooded areas and other forms of vegetation such as trees, grass, orchards, vineyards, forests, meadows, and crops.

Brown (Map Color)

The color used on maps to show relief or height features and the configuration of the ground surface, such as contours, contour numbers, hachures, cuts, and fills.

Red (Map Color)

The color used on maps to emphasize important roads and public land subdivision lines.

Pink (Map Color)

The color used as a surface tint to portray built-up, urban areas and the area coverage of large cities.

Gray (Map Color)

A color used on maps sometimes in place of brown.

Hue

A particular shade or tint of a given color.

Map Symbols

Drawings on the face of a map arranged in the same horizontal relationship to each other as features bear on the ground, used to convey accurate terrain and planimetric information.

Semiotics

The general theory of signs and symbols.

Point Symbols

Marks whose graphic characteristics refer more to a place than to a line or area, commonly taking the form of geometric shapes such as rectangles, triangles, circles, or dots.

Line Symbols

The most versatile and widely used symbols in cartography, represented by solid, dashed, or dotted lines to depict linear features such as rivers, roads, or boundaries.

Flow Lines

Lines of varying widths or graded visual importance used on maps to represent traffic movement, commodity flow, and migration.

Area Symbols

Symbols employed to portray different types of cartographic details, such as bodies of water, vegetation, and ground features, using variations in color and pattern.

Open-Type Symbols

Symbols used for shading features with poorly defined boundaries, such as swamps or marshes.

Map Title

The element that identifies a given map in a file with other similar maps, in which the name of the tract or feature represented is given the most emphasis.

Map Legend

A section on a map explaining the meanings of the symbols used.

Map Notes

Explanatory text positioned in a prominent place on a map to cover special features pertaining to the individual map, such as reference datum or contour interval.