Adventures In Mapping | John Nelson Maps

Here’s a map poster made in ArcGIS Pro, and I’d like to tell you exactly how it was made. It sports cartoon-ized imagery, textures to make it look touchable, and overview globes that cast cute shadows. Here’s a how-to video, followed by step-by-step notes and links… 0:00 Melodious introduction0:23 Mis-using raster functions to make illustration-style … Continue reading How to enthingify maps with cartoon imagery and chunky overviews

Hey, check out the black labels for the black polygon features in this map! Oh, wait, you can’t read them. Ok, I’ll just switch them to white, like this: Foiled again! Now the white features’ labels are invisible. I suppose I could choose a neutral color like gray, but that would still be pretty hard … Continue reading How to make a layer’s labels readable over any background color

Basemaps can be a busy place. Highly variable visual content sitting behind your line features can make them hard to see. Also, maps with lots of feature types, like road networks, need a visual hierarchy so that the primary features are most visible, and so on. Think interstate expressways vs local roads in an atlas. … Continue reading Make lines legible, and POP, with casing

There are a lot of things to think about and manage and tinker with when you assemble a map into a layout, but here are three overarching things to consider: Here’s an example layout that has some issues. Those issues have been addressed in this update. And here it is in a portrait orientation. You … Continue reading Map Layout Review & Makeover

Here’s how you can create an inner shadow effect for your area of interest in ArcGIS Pro. Push the area down into the landscape with realistic lighting, using some gradient stroke hacks and an invisibility cloak. And, for giggles, the world’s fasted demo showing how to invert the effect to make the area of interest … Continue reading How to make a depressed map in ArcGIS Pro

Here’s how you can make the classic National Geographic sort of political style map, with inner tint band ribbon buffalo tint things, AND ensure no colors touch each other. We’ll use way more tools than you think and rely on a hotly contested mathematical theorem!All from the comfort of ArcGIS Pro. Here’s a closer look … Continue reading How to make a political map in ArcGIS Pro

Ah the winter season is a time when we can slow down and appreciate the things that really matter. A chance to take stock of lasting joy. Clearly I’m talking about the opportunity to print out this paper craft ornament template, cut out the component globe gore panels, and assemble them into a simple treasure. … Continue reading Make this spiral globe ornament please!

When working on the Earth Blocks layouts recently I was reminded of an idea I had years ago for a silly earth-slice cutaway graphic that I could strategically place over a 3D globe in an ArcGIS Pro layout. And since it’s a chill Friday afternoon I thought I’d follow up on that idea finally, and … Continue reading Earth Cross-Section Cutaway Graphic Hack

Download this ArcGIS Pro project package that lets you make fun block diagram poster things in minutes. There are ten layout designs in two colors, waiting for your experience and ideas. Slice out little pieces of earth and drop them onto labeled poster paper. What could be more fun? It’s simple, just… When you download the ArcGIS … Continue reading Make an Earth Blocks poster in ArcGIS Pro please

Ever feel like your beautiful web map is trapped in the confines of your monitor? Do you wish its bounty could spill out beyond the stifling domain of 1920×1080? Here’s how to trick a browser’s device emulation tools to capture enormous screenshots. Now you can export your screen as though it were the size of … Continue reading Browser Hack: Gigantic Screenshots