For this lab I tried to optimize my map so that it would look best in digital form. In addition to adding color I made several changes to the map from its original form from Lab 6. I changed the title so that it all fit on one line and shortened it so that income in dollars is displayed in the legend instead of the title. I think it looks cleaner this way. For the most part, the layout of the map is the same, but I did several things that I think make the map look much better digitally, i.e. shrinking the neatlines and using ones with rounded edges. I also used thicker lines for the state borders in order to try to make the main subject of the map more pronounced.
As far as color goes, I think the green color scheme I used works well for this map. Green = Money/Income. Plus I just like green (in case you haven't noticed). I selected the colors from one of the color legends from the all too easy, www.colorbrewer.org (hmm...I should add that site to my links). I actually changed the darkest color to make it a bit darker than what was originally given on the website because it was hard for me to tell the difference between the two highest categories. It is pretty dark but I think it works. I played around with different background colors but I found the grayscale gradient to work for me.
Looking at the differences between the map in digital and paper forms, the colors on the paper map seem a bit more...saturated maybe? The jump in darkness from the second highest to highest category doesn't seem as big on the printed map as it does on the digital map. I probably wouldn't make any major modifications to the map in trying to optimize it for either form. I might have made the scale bar a little bit thinner but thats about it.
So much for 3 or so sentences...and...We welcome you to Munchkinland!
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