The abstract and schematic representation of reality is done in maps using alphabets of symbols, lines, spots, colors, shading and more. The design of the maps indicates the tension between form, content and knowledge.
One of the leading cartographers of our generation says: "In order to capture the nature of the landscape, we have to merge the components in a graphic way so that we receive an iconic quality, a unique sense of place and character. The essence of the personality. "
Another senior cartographer says: "A good topographical map should look like a national monument. It must be a cartographic reflection of the face of the earth that presents the relief, the covering and the dissolution of all the details of the landscape, in a way that emphasizes its unique landscape."
The great precision and the sophisticated graphic means, combined with the development of art and visual communication, led to the fact that every serious decision maker today draw a map highlighting the elements he is interested in, and does so very convincingly.
Modern cartography, having achieved full accuracy of surface description, can assume that the average map reader already easily identifies the area described. It can use this assumption as a springboard for an original presentation of the surface to illustrate certain facts.
One of the most common examples is the creation of maps that emphasize the vertical dimension of the landscape beyond its relative proportions in reality. The accumulated statistical information enables maps in which the desired geographic unit, for example countries, is emphasized, according to the relative size of a given data. For example, in a map that describes the size of the world's population, China and India will appear to be larger than their real size. A third style, mainly tourist maps, is turning the terrain into a background on which images of attractions are featured.
 |
| Legend symbols of the basic elements in the modern city |
 |
| World map with self-filling legend |
