100 words - day 17
Marginalia
This is the ‘stuff’ that exists around a map that helps explain things on the map and give more context. There will be varying opinions about what is necessary in this department and again should probably be seen in context with who is the intended audience.
If a map is simple or for an audience that knows the subject matter most of the marginalia can be left off, but sometimes adding extra information can really help explain the map.
Legends
These help explain features on the map, perhaps different symbols, colours of lines, width of lines, and also numeric values that might be associates with with sizes or shades of colour.
Scale Bar
On standardised maps, like OS maps these are done at specific scales as I mentioned on an earlier post.
With a printed map a referenced scale can sometimes be more helped (this is the scale at which which the features would be on a certain size print eg when printed at A4 ….) in addition to a scale bar.
Digital maps tend to have built in scale bars which will change dynamically as you zoom in and out. Although I will confess that when I am travelling I now default to Google to tell me how long it will take me to get somewhere rather than how far away it is, especially when travelling by road!
North Arrows
These have been included in maps for years and I think of them on some old treasure map as such an important element, but in reality these days I don’t think they offer that much except to crowd a page. Also one might question which north is this referring to magnetic, true or grid north?
Titles and subtiles and dates
These definitely give context and can quickly give the audience an idea of the area and perhaps time frame the map is referring to along with a date.
Sources
This is also important so you can be transparent about where data sources comes from, and give credit where it is due.
Inset Maps
This will depend on the area of interest and intended audience, but these can be very helpful to give perspective to a region at a larger scale as is often done in news articles.
All of these marginalia should help the reader understand the map more clearly and not confuse or crowd the map. Sometimes less is more!