A beautiful map may become popular, even though it may be less accurate than a plainer version. Details of cartographic style affect how a map is perceived, and perception varies with perspective. In short, people understand the world differently, have different modes of expressing this understanding in maps, and gain different understanding from maps. Geographic features can be shown at different sizes and levels of detail by using scale . Maps include selected basic geographic information to provide context .
Every map has a purpose or theme.
The map design , which includes artistic aspects such as composition and balance, affects the success of the map that is, its ability to communicate. Scale is the relationship between the size of a feature on the map and its actual size on the ground. Scale can be indicated three ways. The bar scale is a line or bar that has tick marks for units of distance. The bar scale is especially important because it remains accurate when a map is enlarged or reduced.