Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Maps/Archive 1

message: We need to come up with a standard palette of colors to recommend for use in all geographical maps. The previous use of "Pink" (FF0D0) and "Lavender" (F2D0FF) as third and fourth colors for four-color maps is unworkable.
Color       	Hex    	Sample	Used for
Black       	#000000	 	Primary label color
Brown       	#A08070	 	Political borders. Country, state, and province borders should be brown.
Light brown 	#D0C0A0	 	Secondary political borders.
Light yellow	#FFFFD0	 	Primary territory of interest, or one of four choices for four-color maps.
Pink        	#FFD0D0	 	Another color to be used for four-color maps.
Orange      	#F8A20C	 	A third color to be used for four-color maps.
Green       	#3CE67B	 	A fourth color to be used for four-color maps.
Light blue  	#CEFEF2	 	An alternate color to be used for four-color maps.
Orange      	#F7D3AA	 	Alternative color for the above Tan (surrounding territories).
Medium blue 	#9EC7F3	 	Bodies of water. Oceans or lakes.
Blue        	#4090D0	 	Water borders, if necessary. For lake or ocean borders that need a color contrasting with surrounding land, or for rivers.
Red         	#B00000	 	Points of interest. Cities, especially.
Red-orange  	#F07568	 	Alternative color for the above Red (points of interest).
Medium red  	#E0584E	 	Border color for areas highlighted in Red-orange
Green       	#A0F090	 	Parks or natural preservation areas
Feel free to add or revise the colors above and suggest new colors for specific purposes.
:There should probably be a standard set of colors for each type of map that are consistent with each other. For example, for a U.S. county locator map, we should have colors for:
*highlighted county
*county's state
*surrounding land territory
*county borders
*borders in surrounding territory (with different levels of borders probably having different widths)
*water
*county borders on water (optional and if a different water border is necessary)
*other borders on water (also optional)
*optional county's label
*optional state's label
*optional other counties' labels (space permitting)
*optional surrounding territory labels
*optional important points of interest labels (see :Image:Ph_locator_albay_legazpi.png which has Mayon Volcano on the map)
:--seav 06:38, Feb 28, 2004 (UTC)
::I have converted my Thailand map to those colors above, and compiled a little city locator map with it. I think the above palette is quite usable. I also have tried to use the same red to highlight a province (but haven't uploaded it yet), and that also looks OK. andy 00:28, 29 Feb 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: Looks nice! Though, now that I see it on an actual map, I think maybe the orange color used in seav's maps above may be better than the tan; The same goes for the lighter red-orange used for highlighting. I've added them to the above table as alternatives, so maybe we can vote on favorites at some point. -- Wapcaplet 01:48, 29 Feb 2004 (UTC)

text: I must admit, I didn't consider the issue of colorblindness too much; I was just going for shades as far away from one another on the spectrum as possible. I'm glad they turned out so acceptably, though - Vischeck looks like a great tool; I'll have to use it in the future. Color deficiency is absolutely something we need to think about in choosing our color palette. Additional suggestions on the subject would be welcome! -- Wapcaplet 00:59, 5 Jun 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Map colors 

message: Does anyone know if there exists an international standard set of map icons or symbols? For example, it's fairly common to see a five-pointed star inside a circle to represent a state capitol. U.S. highway numbers are usually shown with a shield-like icon or state emblem (like these). Airports as a tiny airplane, a blue "H" in a box for hospitals, etc. Anyhow, it'd also be good as part of this map project to have a good set of standard icons. If a standard already exists, we can just use those. -- Wapcaplet 01:06, 17 Mar 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Map symbols 

message: A suggestion when you are creating maps, or getting them from PD sources: For some maps, especially world maps, it is important to know what projection method was used to create the map to understand what sort of distortions are inherent in the map. I've added the proper info to :Image:World-map-2004-cia-factbook-large-2m.jpg and to the info below the map where I originally found it at Wikipedia:WikiProject Maps/World, but this info is needed for any world map. gK ¿? 11:05, 17 Nov 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: Projections

message: (Sorry, I'm not sure what the correct term is for what I'm referring to.)
Should we build a repository of the working files (e.g. PhotoShop, Illustrator, FireWorks, Gimp etc.) used to create maps so that others can update them later and/or reuse them elsewhere?
* some format with various map elements stored in layers where applicable?
Maybe such exists and I've just not found it?  I suppose this might also be of use in a larger context within this Wiki (e.g. all images?), but it seems like it would be especially useful here.
:The idea seems great! In the commons there are several GIMP format files with all the layers and thingies. Perhaps we could create a separate gallery of files for use by the map geeks? Commons is the place to go and such a repository of files could be of great help. After all the rivers and shorelines do not change that much and, for instance, my map of Poland anno domini 1660 could be used by someone for creating a map of Central Europe anno domini 2004... 
: I'll start such gallery and let you know. Halibutt 09:55, Dec 14, 2004 (UTC)
:*While I agree this is a good idea, I would in addition be interested in references to sources of free GIS vector data for making maps.  Bitmap style GIMP documents are good for making some maps but are sometimes difficult to resize or zoom for new maps.  I put together a brief howto on using GIS data and GIMP for making Wikipedia maps along with two sources of GIS data that I have used.  I have only made a few maps so I'm sure some of you will find my techniques primitive. Al guy 03:47, Dec 15, 2004 (UTC)
* Seems like this repository should to be a part/section of a larger repository of source materials used to create graphics (and other media types?) throughout this wiki. Pfwebadmin 19:58, 15 Dec 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: Ok, I started the project on commons. (see the box). However, I'm not too sure this would be a good idea since I realised that some of my maps are 8MB+ ... Halibutt 13:43, Dec 16, 2004 (UTC)
* Size of a source repository would definitely have the potential to mushroom.  Bandwith/server load prolly wouldn't be too big an issue, though, since these aren't the sort of things that would be downloaded by many people.Pfwebadmin 21:32, 16 Dec 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: There's one very important benefit given by source files : the possibility to localize the map in a different language. I think that for every map there should be a version without text or, even better , with editable text (for instance a .sxi with a .png background and text objects shouldn't be that big)._R_ 00:24, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)

text: Yup, the size is what troubles me since the commons does not accept .zip or .rar, but the bandwidth is indeed not a serious issue. Anyway, I added some GIMP files to the gallery. Halibutt 11:06, Dec 17, 2004 (UTC)
Good call on the commons page. I like the way there are thumbnails for a lot of the files (though it could get pretty bandwidth-intensive with a lot of files there). Yeah, shame about the size limit. If it accepted .zip, it'd be easier to get around that limit. I think the commons is probably a more appropriate place for all our source images. Should we create a broader commons page to encompass the map sources as well as other categories of image? Breaking them into categories might help with finding what you need. I'm sure maps will be one of the biggest categories, but I can foresee needing categories for anatomical diagrams, mechanical illustrations, and a variety of others (plus a 'misc' category for ones that don't fit in an existing category). I haven't used the commons at all; can we do categories there? Nevermind, I see that there are categories :-) -- Wapcaplet 20:51, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Source files used to create maps?