User:MapMaster

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The languages of Bangladesh, of course.
Bengali Here is the map in Bengali..

Welcome to my User page! - - - Here is my latest map --->>>>

My map-making guidelines

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My goal is to create integrated maps, maps intended to be read alongside the text, highlighting important places mentioned in the article.

In general, integrated maps:

  • Will work together with the accompanying article. The purpose of an integrated map is to provide context for placenames and other information in the article.
  • Will be sharply defined and clear when viewed within the article. Too many maps in Wikipedia are shrunken so small or drawn with so much detail that they cannot be read or understood from the article.
  • Will have colors based on the semi-official ones at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Maps.
  • Will not require a magnifying glass and maxi-zoom to read the details. Like a Wikipedia article, a map can be improved by leaving out information/data.
  • Will be easy to interpret.

While large comprehensive maps have their own encyclopedic uses, they do not work well as a guide to places and other information in the article -- editor will almost always reduce that map's size to the point where it requires the visitor to click to another screen just to read it. But then the map is divorced from the text and the visitor can no longer easily locate places. She will usually just give up rather than click-and-load back-and-forth.

An integrated map, on the other hard, can be read from the article itself. This allows the visitor, as she reads thru the text, to locate the various unfamiliar placenames on the map and then go back to reading with a quick eye movement (and repeat down the page).

The Mapmaker's Star - for consistently beautiful historic maps that raise the bar for wikipedia map making. Kmusser 15:16, 7 December 2006 (UTC)
The Mapmaker's Star. You deserve it for making what could quite possibly be the best and most useful maps on Wikipedia. Keep up the great work! Oreo Priest 11:02, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

A bit of background

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I am also a fan of Edward Tufte and I think it's important that maps (or any visual informative media) are clean and easily understandable, with little if any window dressing. This does not mean, however, that maps should be drab. Au contraire.

I use Inkscape to create my maps. I believe that SVG is the best format for maps, although the font support here in Wiki-land is poor (see discussion here).

I try to work on the requests at w:en:Wikipedia:WikiProject Maps/Requested and orphan maps, but you certainly may leave a request on my Talk page.

My Wikipedia maps

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I would be very happy to translate any of my maps into another language.

Historical maps

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1,2,3 - 4,5,6 - 7,8,9 - 10,11,12 :
13,14,15 - 16,17,18 - 19,20,21 - 22,23,24 :

Locator maps

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The following maps do not contain any labels. Such maps are useful under some circumstances, but the general geographic area must be recognizable to the average reader. The disadvantage, of course, is that these maps are less informative, but such maps can be useful in a multi-language encyclopedia.

The empire of Attila the Hun, circa 450 AD.
The Republic of Venice in 1796.
The domains of the Golden Horde in 1389 before the w:en:Tokhtamysh-Timur war, with modern international boundaries in light brown. The Principality of Moscow is shown as a dependency, in light yellow.
Duchy of Courland and Semigallia in 1740.
The Duchy of Naxos, also known as the Duchy of the Archipelago, in the year 1450.

Image:Danishmend 1097, locator map.svg‎|A map showing the lands of the Danishmends in 1097.

Site maps

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Here are three maps intended to show particular sites.

Here's a map of the Monte Albán archaeological site. I attempted to show the elevation of the site (it's built on an artificially-flattened mountain top) through the use of increasingly light colors.
The site plan for the Olmec La Venta archaeological site in w:en:Veracruz, w:en:Mexico. I built this map using Image:Plano La Venta.svg created by the wonderful Yavidaxiu. The "source code" for this image can be found at Image:La Venta Site Plan.svg, but the SVG interpreter here in Wikipedia could not handle the fonts I've used and has inserted other weird-osity, so I uploaded it as a PNG file.
A map of Central Park, New York City. I generally prefer historical maps, but I was asked nicely.
Commissioned by Peter Andersen.