In Finnish This presentation deals primarily with General Topographic Maps and partly with Special Topographic Maps . The topic is limited to practical cartography only and seen from the point of view of a cartographer performing his work by traditional methods. Cartographic generalization belongs to the preparation of derived maps . This means that smaller scale maps are derived from larger scale maps.
Generalization is a total task , which touches all the items to be shown on a map.
When a specific feature group of a map is to be generalized, the cartographer must know the degree of generalization intended to be made for the other feature groups. The cartographic quality or poorness of a map is judged on the basis how harmoniously the different layers fit together and of course also on the basis how well the generalization by selection has been made. Map's instructions of cartographic presentation contain the main rules for generalization. The specifications indicate what is shown on a map and how . This means that both the designer of a map and the cartographer preparing it are responsible for the quality.