With Google Earth Pro as a free download, mapmakers now have additional tools at hand. One tool is Google Earth Pro’s Show Ruler tool. With it you can draw radius rings and save them as .kmz files you can then import into Adobe Illustrator using Avenza’s MAPublisher plug-ins.
WordPressing Maps into Service
WordPress is the most popular CMS for building websites. According to one source, 50% of websites built from a CMS are built with WordPress.
When WordPress websites display maps, they often present a standard Google map. These are effective but commonplace, and they may show information that’s unneeded or even counter-productive.
Enter Adobe Illustrator and Avenza’s MAP Web Author.
Vestavia Hills, Alabama
Taking a Corner
Illustrator CC continues Adobe’s trend of making tools and effects “live.” Corners of rectangles made with the Rectangle tool are live, with icons that let you round, invert, or angle (chamfer) corners after you’ve drawn the rectangle.
For cartographers, complex symbols can be made more quickly with Live Corners.
Parks and Rec — The Map
I’m a fan of the NBC television show Parks and Recreation. I’m also a fan of park maps because they try to graphically synthesize fun stuff, like playgrounds and softball fields.
Park maps are a microcosm of illustrative techniques. They can push Adobe Illustrator and a computer’s CPU and GPU to the redline.
In this map of a sports complex, we used gradient mesh, transparency, and a patterned fill to soften the hard edges and uniform color fills of Illustrator shapes. Our goal was to precisely map features like soccer fields, portray them in recognizable forms, and keep the illustration visually alive and interesting.
Google Maps as the Crow Flies
A common request of mapmakers is to show radius rings in various distance increments.
Combining Google Maps with radius rings can give a client a quick look at how much area, or what cities, will be included within the rings. You can quickly produce a radius rings map image at http://www.acscdg.com.
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