Area Covered
Do you need a map of the world? a United States map? a city map? a continent map?
Size
Measure your available wall space!
Scale and Level of Detail
The scale of a map will usually dictate the level of detail, since detail must be
legible to be useful. A quick glance at our scale table
may be of some help to you in this area.
Color
If you plan to highlight routes or pinpoint sites (with arrows, dots, map flags,
or map tacks), then you may prefer colors that do not visually compete with the
information you are adding.
On the other hand, the colors in the map may be the
perfect decorator accent to the new carpet.
Projection
Since the earth is round and maps are flat, every map is somewhat distorted. On
world maps, you do notice this. For more information on the different types of map
projections, see our projection guide.
Features
Each cartographer must choose what to put in and what to leave out, so each map
has its own emphasis, its own "style." We've tried to point out some differences
in the individual map descriptions.
