Lab 3 - Typography

I began my use of type by first deciding on a font to establish my map’s personality and tone of voice. I decided on “Arial” because it is a sans serif font. The sans serif typeface category is “by far the most common on maps due to their legibility” (Morgan, p. 1). I think it works well for the task at hand: creating a general reference map of San Francisco that is clear and informative.

General:
The San Francisco label has the largest font size of all other labels on my map (size 14), which establishes hierarchy to represent the focal purpose of the map. It is also bolded, color black, in all caps, and has a character spacing value of 56 which is the default for the “Country 2” Esri label style. Because the street network of San Francisco competes with the legibility of labels, the use of bold and kerning improves the contrast with the background.

Marin Peninsula and Angel Island are both parks (per the map’s symbology), while Sausalito and Treasure Island are cities. But because they were all under the same “General” category, I decided to label Sausalito, Angel Island, and Treasure Island the same: size 11, black, and with a dark gray shadow that has an offset of 0.5 for x, and -0.5 for y. By adjusting the offset of the shadow, the effect “can increase legibility of text by adding contrast with background colors and features” (Brewer, 2016, p. 99). Although not all of these three labels needed a shadow effect, I wanted to be consistent with the category.

Marin Peninsula did receive special treatment because it’s a feature that emphasizes the labeling guidelines of areas/landforms. Specifically, Marin Peninsula’s label uses upper case letters, character spacing of a value of 40, size 12, centered in the area’s feature, but tilted in a way that visualizes the area’s diagonal extent. I achieved this tilting effect by using the Spline Text tool in the Drawing Toolbar.

Water Features:
All water feature labels are bright blue and in italics. The bright blue font visually contrasts against the water’s blue symbology. And italics is what is typically used for labeling water features. In order to create hierarchy for these features (while also taking into account the space provided), I used different sizes. The San Francisco Bay is the largest of these water features and therefore has a font size of 12, character spacing of 40, and staggered in a way that compliments the area depicted within the data frame. Golden State and Lake Merced, on the other hand, are size 9 and 8 (respectively), one with character spacing, the other with none. However, I created both using the Spline Text tool in the Drawing Toolbar to mimic their respective geographic features’ extent.

Park Names:
I labeled all park names the same: size 11, color green, with a halo of 1.5, and strategically placed them on the center of the features. By choosing green as the font’s color, I believe it emphasizes visual hierarchy versus other geographic label categories. Additionally, the color green parallels the nature of “park” features, and with the use of the halos, it assists in legibility. As Brewer states, “halos function much like shadows” and can improve in visual contrast (2016, p. 100). Finally, I staggered “Presidio of San Francisco” and “Lincoln Park” in a manner that achieves balance with the rest of the labels.

Landmarks:
The Gold State Bridge label is size 9, black, and has a halo of 1.0. Hierarchy is portrayed by the font size, while visual contrast and legibility are portrayed through the use of the halo.

Topographic Features:
The labels of these features are all the same: size 10, all in uppercase, font color medium gray, with a dark gray shadow effect of an offset of 0.5 for x, and -0.5 for y. Because these areas are highly dense in the street network layer, using a shadow effect really assists with visual contrast and legibility. The font size and font color chosen, on the other hand, emphasizes hierarchy as these areas are different categories from the other points of interests in San Francisco.