Best of Breed: Online Maps

[matt wilkie ()]

use this thread for links or reviews of online mapping sites which for one reason or another are above the crowd.

[matt wilkie]

 http://www.typebrewer.org/  - very cool site for interactively exploring different typefaces and sizes on a map. Not content to just show off, the site is also a significant learning tool. Did you know that the little bump at the bottom of a small serif "b" is called a terminal? Or that a serif font for large waterbodies like oceans for online display is good in the range of 13 - 20 pts  while for print the same text's optimal range is 10.5 - 16 pts? Many thanks and kudos to Ben Sheesley of UW-Madison's Department of Geography for putting this excellent tool together.

[matt wilkie]

 Exploring Color  http://www.personal.psu.edu/cab38/ColorBrewer/ColorBrewer_intro.html - an online tool designed to help people select good color schemes for maps and other graphics.  Printed charts and RGB Excel files of the schemes are available to download. Brought to us by Mark Harrower and Cindy Brewer of Penn State University (they also contributed to the type brewer).