Module 2 - Typography

    This week, in the second Computer Cartography lab, was about map topography. 

    For this module we learned about topography, where in the lab and map, labeled landforms and features on a map. As you can see below the map contains names next to their features and has appropriate symbology. Some of these are customizations made by me, but I was successful in labeling everything appropriately. The focus of the lab was to make a discernable map of Florida with a few major cities, the capital, two of the biggest swamps, and a few rivers labeled. This was all done in ArcGIS with instructions which helped in fine tuning the use of the label feature. One of the things I learned was to use the 'if then' SQL coding to get all the major cities I needed labeled. I also used some previous ArcGIS knowledge to make the map a bit cleaner. 

    Next, I want to go over the few customizations I did to my map below. One of the first customizations I made was a classic, where you make the state capital a star. While redundant, it does help it feel different from the rest of the points on the map. Secondly, I made all the major cities triangles instead of circles. The reason as to why is because its more in line with the capital. Where it has five points and the major cities only have three, thus there is a degree of separation between them. Lastly, one of my final customizations was to give each feature its own color for its text. This way each name can be linked to its point and not confusing if they were all black.

    In closing, this was a good refresher lab given my history with ArcGIS, while also learning a few new tricks. I hope I can make better maps throughout this lab and into the next.