Cartography Terminology

See also ESRI GIS Dictionary: https://support.esri.com/en-us/gis-dictionary 

General / GIS / ArcGIS Pro Terms

• Attribute Table, Attributes, Row, Column

• Azimuth

• Color (see below)

• Contour

• Coordinate System

  • Latitude-Longitude

  • Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM)

  • State Plane Coordinate System (SPCS)

  • Web Mercator

• Data

  • DEM

  • Grid (raster data)

  • Imagery

    • Aerial imagery

    • Scanned or digital maps (often archival)

  • LIDAR

  • Raster

    • Cells (or pixels)

    • Imagery vs. Thematic or Continuous datasets

    • Resolution

  • TIN

  • Vector

    • Entities and Attributes

    • Feature Classes, GPX files, Shapefiles, etc.

    • Points, Lines, Polygons, Annotation

• Datum

  • NAD-27 (North American Datum of 1927)

  • NAD-83 (North American Datum of 1983)

  • WGS-84 (World Geodetic Survey of 1984)

• Feature Class (ArcGIS Pro)

• Geodatabase (.gdb) 

• Geo-Data-Viz

• GIS

• GPS

• Graticule

• Grid

• Latitude

• Longitude

• Magnetic Declination

• Metadata

• Meridian

• Public Land Survey System (PLSS)

• Project File (.aprx) (ArcGIS Pro)

• Projection

  • Lambert Conformal Conic

  • Mercator

  • Web Mercator

• Remote Sensing

• Raster Functions (ArcGIS Pro)

• Scale

  • Ratio (e.g., 1:24,000)

  • Representative Fraction (e.g., "1 inch equals a mile")

  • Scalebar (Graphic)

• Slope

• Spheroid (Oblate)

• Statistics: Min, Max, Mean, Mode, Median…

  • (See Classification Methods below)

• Symbology (see below)

• Text (see below)

• View (ArcGIS Pro)

  • Layout View

  • Map View

• Z-Factor (elevation)

Cartography Terms

• • Border / Neatline

  • Graticule

  • Inset Map

    • Locator Map

    • Detail Map

  • Legend

  • North Indicator / Arrow / Orientation

  • Pop-Ups

  • Scale Indicator / Bar

Types of MAPS

• Basemap (vs. Operational or Thematic Layers)

• Bathymetric

• Cadastral

• Cartogram

• Choropleth

• Dasymetric

• Floorshade

• Reference

• Hillshade

• Hydrographic

• Hydrology

• Hypsometric

• Isopleth / Isoline

• Orthophotograph / Orthophoto

• Swiss Hillshade

• Thematic (single topic)

• Topographic

SYMBOLOGY

• Bivariate Colors

• Classification Methods: 

  • Defined Interval

  • Equal Interval

  • Manual Intervals

  • Natural Breaks

  • Quantile

• Dot Density

• Floorshade (bathymetric 'hill' shading)

• Graduated Colors

• Graduated Symbols

• Heat Map

• Hillshade

• Hypsometric Shading

• Monochromatic

• Proportional Symbols

• Qualitative

• Quantitative

• Stoplight-Cartography (red-yellow-green)

• Unclassed Symbols

• Unique Values

• Vignettes (coastal or otherwise)

TEXT

• Annotation

• Arcade (ArcGIS Pro)

• Dynamic Labels

• Font

  • Case

  • Color

  • Sans-Serif

  • Serif

  • Size

  • Style

• Graphic Text

• Knockouts

• Label Classes

• Label Expressions

• Labels

• Page Text

COLOR

• Color Models:

  • CMYK

  • Hexadecimal

  • HSV

  • RGB

• Color Schemes: 

  • ArcGIS

  • Bivariate

  • Continuous

  • Discrete

  • Multi-Part

  • Random

• Layer Blend Modes

• Simultaneous Contrast

INTERACTIVE MAPS

• ArcGIS Online: 

  • Basemap

  • Operational Layers

  • Web Map

  • Web Mapping Application

• Labels

• Pop-Ups

• StoryMap

• Visible Scale Range