The Design And Implementation Of Cartographic Symbols On General Regional Atlas

General regional atlas is an intuitional information carrier in our daily life. People can obtain system, visual and exact knowledge about a certain area's general situation, such as its nature, economy and society through these atlases. As a main expression of spatial information visualization, map symbols have good qualities like definitude, intuition, lifelikeness, etc. And also as an important part, map symbol design plays an important role in atlas compilation, since it directly influences the design quality and usability of the atlas. Guided by mapping principles and combined with the compilation and publishing for Qingyang Atlas and Jiuquan atlas, a deep research on general regional atlas symbol design as well as symbol database establishment and application was carried out under a desktop mapping software Coreldraw 12.0.Firstly, through studying the concept of map symbol designing and analyzing map symbol designing characteristics under computer environment, symbol designing contents which include visual variables and symbol types are put forward. Fatherly, the theory basis of general regional atlas symbol designing is described from the aspects of map visual experience, map spatial cognition and map aesthetics.Secondly, according to the content characteristics of general regional atlas, using professional theories and knowledge of map symbol designing, a symbol type system for general regional atlas is established. Meanwhile, designing rules, principles and methods for symbols of general geographic features, thematic features and statistics charts are discussed. Based on these work, symbol designing program for general regional atlas is proposed.Thirdly, according to the symbol designing principle and method for general regional atlas, based on the Coreldraw12.0 mapping software, map symbol realizing method in general regional atlas is researched, a complete symbol database is also established. Further more, some practical skills and methods are summarized; a grate number of maps in general regional atlas are made based on the symbol database. Through all these work, many problems like bad visual effect, less map symbol types, low printing qualities with other platform and software are solved. In addition, a new way and practical method for general regional atlas designing and making are explored.Fourthly, in order to improve the general regional atlas symbol designing program, using computer technology, an experimental system for general regional atlas symbol designing is developed. Both single symbol and overall effect are experimented, analyzed and modified in this system. Through this process, shortcomings of pure theory research are overwhelmed, a quantitative verification means for qualitative research is offered, further more, an experimental platform in practical application is provided.