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I seem to have accidentally come up with a method for duplicating a centuries-old terrain representation technique. If you’ve looked at old maps, you’ve probably seen hachures: lines that run up and down along the slope of terrain features. There were a wide variety of approaches to doing hachuring, with different rules. But, in all … Continue reading Automated Hachuring in QGIS →
a year ago

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More from somethingaboutmaps

A Sketch of Isle Royale

It’s been a summer full of side projects here. Which is a very good sign — I used to do many, many side projects, but for the last couple of years, poor health has left me with reduced energy, and my output dropped off significantly. It’s nice to feel inspired again, in so many directions … Continue reading A Sketch of Isle Royale →

a month ago 25 votes
Planetfall

Gentle readers, I have just wrapped up a fun side project that will be of great interest to a very small number of you. The result of one of the most technically demanding efforts of my career, I am very pleased to share it with you. Most of you will wonder what this place is, … Continue reading Planetfall →

3 months ago 39 votes
Map of the Month: An Experiment

Friends, you might remember that, last year, I wrote to you about how I was finally able to see a dream I’d had for many years come true: bringing together a bunch of map creators onto a single website. I had hoped that this would only be the beginning of our cooperation with each other. … Continue reading Map of the Month: An Experiment →

3 months ago 38 votes
2025 AFC Freelancer Survey

Though it’s been about a week since we sent it out there, I just recalled that I haven’t alerted all of you to the 2025 edition of the freelance cartographer survey that Aly Ollivierre and I conduct. Due to popular demand, we are going to try conducting it annually, rather than biennially. This survey is … Continue reading 2025 AFC Freelancer Survey →

4 months ago 60 votes
A Usefully Useless Projection

Friends, I’m excited to share that I have just completed a world physical map, in my new asymmetric monstrosity projection. It’s free to download, or if you want to buy a 30″ × 20″ print, you can also do that (and I will be pleasantly surprised). If you download it and print it yourself, I … Continue reading A Usefully Useless Projection →

4 months ago 69 votes

More in cartography

“A Mighty Redwood Has Fallen”

Malcolm Margolin was the coolest people I knew. If we can’t be hugely saddened by his passing, and the loss of his dynamic presence in the East Bay, he’ll be a model for persisting a vision quest in a dark … Continue reading →

9 hours ago 4 votes
Isochrone Tokyo
22 hours ago 2 votes
How to make map textures for ArcGIS and stuff

Here’s how you can take an image, turn it into a repeating texture, and apply it to the whole world. We’ll make a cement-sourced gritty texture and then a water-sourced wave texture. We’ll use the Vector Tile Style Editor to make these textures global layers for ArcGIS, ready to pour tactile charm and reality into …

4 days ago 12 votes
Submission – Official Map: Kaohsiung MRT Diagram, Taiwan, 2025

Submitted by Emerson, who says: This is Kaohsiung MRT’s new system map, following the Red Line extension to Gangshan and the completion of the LRT loop. So far, Kaohsiung has not been featured on this site, so I would love to see your opinions on their map! Transit Maps says: I have to say that […]

4 days ago 13 votes
Fall is Warmer Now
4 days ago 6 votes