Editing Map Series - Part 1, Map Layers

Understanding Map Layers 

Often, when a user opens a Map Resources map, the first reaction is, "Yikes, this map is way too busy." And for many projects, this is true, the map is too busy.

But as soon as a designer starts playing with the layers palette, they realize how easy it is to turn features on and off.  And that the features included on the map are really just an array of choices they have at their fingertips. 

In order to make our maps as useful as possible, in as many situations as possible, Map Resources includes a lot of feature layers.  Indeed, some maps have over 75 layers! 

For example, this world map has 6 different city layers, 1 for capital cities, the others designating 5 population levels. To show a detailed map, you can leave them all on.  However, perhaps you want to clear some of the busyness of the map, because you want to call attention to major cities, or maybe you're printing at a small size. You can simply turn off the lower population layer, retain the higher population layers, and still have a professional looking map.

 

Looks too busy?

Turn off some of those layers!

 

 

 

 

Watch this short video to see how to manipulate layers to compose the perfect map for your project.

 

Want to try editing a map? Download free map samples here.

Come back next week for Part 2 and learn about Coloring Maps.