Layout resources

Supplemental resources for building layouts in ArcGIS Pro

Links to tutorials and guides

• ESRI Make a layout tutorial 

• Put a north arrow on it?

Design a layout in ArcGIS Pro tutorials in ESRI Learning

• Part 1: Make a layout with two maps

• Part 2: Arrange a layout

• Part 3: Finish and export a layout

Choosing a color scheme

• Select a color scheme from ColorBrewer

  • Be mindful of needs for:

    • Qualitative, categories with no inherent order, use a qualitative scheme

    • Quantitative

      • Diverging if your classification scheme is centered on a central tendency measure like the mean or median.

      • Sequential if your intent is to show simple concentration of an indicator (ascending or descending).

    • A color-blind friendly color scheme

Tips for working with layouts

• Create a template that you reuse for all maps in a project

• Use guides

Legends

• Tips and Tricks for Working with Legends in ArcGIS Pro

  •  Use the  legend dialog in the Layout Drawing Order pane (left-side pane like your Drawing Order in a map)

    • Add Selected Items using the legend dialog in the Layout contents pane.

    • Reorder legend items as needed using the legend dialog in the Layout contents pane

  • Legend Arrangement Options (the second icon in the Format Legend pane on the right side of your screen)

    • Change the fitting strategy

    • Set a minimum text size

    • Change the spacing between legend items and classes

  • Change text characteristics (size, font) for a specific legend item

    • Double click on the legend item in the layout Drawing Order pane, then select Text Symbol

  • If you place a legend on a map extent within your layout, use a background and border. Increase the x and y gap to frame your legend items.

  • Use indents to create a hierarchy in layers and layer classes

Establishing a visual hierarchy 

Maps tell stories about the world and the relationship between aspects of that world in space. Accordingly, there is a hierarchy to the different elements in a map. Some elements are important to the story and need to be emphasized, while other elements are supporting characters that need to stay in the background visually.

Monmonier (1993) asserts that there is a intellectual hierarchy or scale of concepts that governs what should be considered most and least important on a map (Slocum et al. 2009, 214).

The size, content, and arrangement of layout and thematic elements can be adjusted to increase or decrease visual weight.

The choice of which map elements get greater or lesser visual weight communicates a visual hierarchy about what is most and least important on a map.

One definition of good basic cartographic design is that the visual hierarchy in the design reflects the intellectual hierarchy.

 Monmonier's hierarchy (from most to least important) is:

1. Thematic symbols, and labels directly related to the theme.

2. The title, subtitle, and legend

3. Base map information (boundaries, roads, place-names, etc.)

4. Scale bar and north arrow

5. Data source information

6. Frame and neat lines

7. If it is a standalone map, also add a brief map description.

Standalone layouts

Standalone layouts are maps that contain a full set of cartographic elements needed to communicate vital information about the map to the reader. Standalone layouts can be used as presentation slides or complete pages in reports.

Cartographic convention dictates adding additional annotation (e.g., data citations) information to the margins of standalone maps to communicate to the reader what they are looking at and where the information came from.

This layout format places the annotations at the bottom of the page and places neat lines (borders) around elements in a manner similar to the format commonly used for engineering diagrams.

1. Insert a new Layout.

   • For example, choose a standard US 8.5" x 11" paper size.

   • If your desired map area is wider than it is tall, choose Landscape orientation. Otherwise, choose Portrait.

   • Give the layout a meaningful name by right-clicking on the layout in the Contents pane, Properties, General, Name. This will make it easier for you to keep your maps organized if you have multiple layouts in a project.

2. Insert a Map Frame and center it on the page.

   • If you need to move the map inside the map frame, right click on the map and Activate the map so that dragging and zooming affect the map in the frame rather than the map layout.

   • Zoom your mapped content to fully utilize the area within the map frame.

   • When you are done adjusting the map, click the arrow at the top of the window to deactivate the map.

   • If there is only one map frame, leave the default black border on to serve as a frame line.

4. You should leave an even margin of around 1/2" between the edge of the paper and the outer edges of your map elements. This will improve readability and give paper map users a place to put their fingers.

5. Insert a title.

1. • Insert a Straight Text box.

   • Drag the box where you want the title, and type the title into the text box.

   • The box will expand to fit the text, and you can drag the edges in to resize the text.

   • If desired, you may want to change the font, make it bold, and center the text.

   • Unless dictated by the stylistic conventions of your organization, titles should probably be in title case (capitalize the first letter of each word).

6. Insert a Rectangle text box for the standard annotation credits (metadata) text in 12pt font or smaller.

1. • The Cartographer or Author (you)

   • The Source for the mapped data

7. Hide the base map service credits by inserting a Dynamic text box for the Service layer credits and drawing that box outside the printable area of the layout. The Dynamic text box option is just to the right of the textbox icon.

1. • While giving credit to the source for the base map information can be useful (and may be required depending on your organization's adherence to license requirements), that information can be confusing on thematic maps where the data comes from a different source than the base map.

8. Add a Legend.

1. • If nothing appears (or if you see three red dots), expand the box size to be large enough for the text. You can then drag the sides to reduce the side if needed.

   • The legend gets its titles from the layer and variable names, so you may need to change those if they are not particularly meaningful. You can change them by right-clicking on the layer and selecting Properties -> General.

   • The legend in this style sits over an unimportant area along the edge of the map frame.

   • Right click on the legend and select Properties the Display (paint brush) icon, and give the legend a white background, black border, and 0.1" padding (x and y gap) around the edges.

   • Depending on how many variables you are displaying and how you have titled your map, you may wish to remove redundant or unnecessary headings, such as the default "Legend" title. Right-click on the legend, select Properties -> Legend Items -> Show Properties and turn off the unneeded names.

   • Make sure your legend labels have the number of decimal places appropriate to the accuracy of the underlying data. Unnecessary decimal places should be removed on the map Symbology under Advanced symbology options, Rounding.

9. If you have a logo image, you can Insert Picture in the margin to give the map.

10. Finally, Share and Export a PDF of the map that you can print.

1. • PDF is the preferred output format for printable standalone maps. PNG is preferred for maps that will be added to a slide deck, report document, or Storymap.

   • Portable Document Format (PDF) is a type of file developed by Adobe that preserves the formatting of a document as you created it so that documents appear the same on different computers or printers.