Journal: The Cartographic journal, 2006, vol. 43, No. 3, pp. 198–207.
This paper has been awarded the 2007 Henry Johns Award for the Best Cartographic Journal Article by the British Cartographic Society.
Also available as PDF document.
1 Abstract
Maps with coloured relief shading, modulated by elevation and by exposure to illumination, present topography in a particularly vivid and descriptive manner. Carefully modulated illumination and shading shown in continuous colour tones simulate the third dimension of topography, helping map-readers to conceive more easily the terrain’s important landforms. Since the end of the 19th century, cartographers have developed a wide variety of colour schemes. The first part of this paper illustrates the graphical and technical developments of the past, leading to Swiss-style coloured relief shading; the second part presents a new computer-based method for colourizing grey-shaded relief inspired by classic colour schemes. The method uses a colour look-up table and a digital elevation model. The colour look-up table has colours for all combinations of initial grey values and terrain elevations. It is constructed from interactively placed colour reference points.
Chapters:
