Wikipedia:WikiProject China/Cartography

This project is intended to improve Chinese-related maps. We need your help! If you are famiiar with maps, feel free to contribute.

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WP:ZHMAPWP:ZHMAP

The parent of this WikiProject are WikiProject China and WikiProject Maps

Aim – This project aims to draw hi-resolution, vector maps for China-related articles. It also aims to get hi-resolution raster (.png) topography images.

Members

Project notice

Place this WikiProject notice Template:WPCHINA at the top of an image's Talk page. To use it, place {{WPCHINA|class=Image}} at the top of an image's Talk page.

Types

The project is divided into locator maps, general maps and city maps.

Type	Info
Locator	Locator maps are used to show the location of a city, town, state or particular area within China.
General	Non-locator maps. Maps of this type incude rivers, ancient kingdoms, crop-related etc.
City	Maps of cities. See the featured image of Manila alongside for reference:
Topographical	These maps depict the topography of a region. See User:Captain Blood/GMT Example for an example.

Using locator maps

If a locator map needs to be added to a section in an article, then use Location map template. Find below some examples.

Usage

{{Location map|China
 |label=label
 |position=left or right - position of the label relative to the mark, defaults to right
 |background=color - background color for the label, defaults to none
 |lat=latitude in degrees
 |long=longitude in degrees
 |mark=image file name - a red dot by default
 |caption=caption - caption below the map
 |float=left or right or none
 |width=width of the map
}}

Examples

Currently none...

Conventions

Colours

Please use the following colours recommended by WikiProject Maps.

Colour	Hex	RGB	Used for
Black	#000000	0, 0, 0	Primary label colour
Brown	#A08070	160, 128, 112	Political borders. Country, state, and province borders should be brown.
Light brown	#D0C0A0	208, 192, 160	Secondary political borders.
Light yellow	#FFFFD0	255, 255, 208	Primary territory of interest, or one of four choices for four-colour maps.
Pink	#FFD0D0	255, 208, 208	Another colour to be used for four-colour maps.
Orange	#F8A20C	248, 162, 12	A third colour to be used for four-colour maps.
Green	#3CE67B	60, 230, 123	A fourth colour to be used for four-colour maps.
Light blue	#CEFEF2	206, 254, 242	An alternate color to be used for four-colour maps.
Orange	#F7D3AA	247, 211, 170	Alternative colour for the above Tan (surrounding territories).
Medium blue	#9EC7F3	158, 199, 243	Bodies of water. Oceans or lakes.
Blue	#1821DE	24, 33, 222	Water borders, if necessary. For lake or ocean borders that need a colour contrasting with surrounding land, or for rivers.
Red	#B00000	176, 0, 0	Points of interest. Cities, especially.
Red-orange	#F07568	240, 117, 104	Alternative colour for the above Red (points of interest).
Medium red	#E0584E	224, 88, 78	Border colour for areas highlighted in Red-orange
Green	#A0F090	160, 240, 144	Parks or natural preservation areas

Border styles

Style	Used for	Comments
Thick line	Primary borders	Use a thick line for the primary (usually political) borders on a map. If the map primarily depicts a country, use a thick line for the country borders; if a state, the state borders.
Thin line	Secondary borders	Use a thin line (approximately 1/2 the thickness of the primary borders) for secondary boundaries. If a state map shows counties, use a thin line for county borders.
Italic font	Bodies of water	Use an italicized font for labelling bodies of water: oceans, lakes, rivers, etc.
All-caps font	Primary regions	Use a font in all-capital letters for labelling primary regions of interest: country names, state names, etc.
Mixed case font	Secondary regions	Use mixed case (capital followed by lowercase) for regions of secondary interest: provinces in a country map, counties in a state map, etc.

Typeface

Use only Arial font in the maps.

Scheme	Case	Font	Size	Tracking	Opacity
Union territory	Normal	Bold	30/24	0	35
National capital	UPPERCASE	Bold Italic	24	-25	100
Union territory capital	Normal	Italic	24	-25	100
State	UPPERCASE	Bold	40/30	0	35
State capital	Normal	Regular	24	-25	100
Metro cities	UPPERCASE	Regular	24	-25	100

Cartographic conventions

Names of coastal cities are written in the sea
Names of rivers and mountain ranges follow the path of the river/range
Capital cities are usually marked with a star

Uploading

Format

All maps should be drawn SVG format. SVG is a vector format that allows upscaling without pixellation. It also allows users to download and modify the map to make derivatives. Please do not use the following raster formats: .png, .gif and .jpg for maps. For topographical maps, use .png.

Filenames

TBD

Upload location

If the map contains no text, upload it to commons:
If text is needed to be added to the map, please make two versions: One, a blank map without text, and the other with text. Upload the blank map to commons, and the one with English text here on en wiki.

Licensing

Only images with a licence that allows commercial usage and allows derivatives to be made may be uploaded to Wikipedia. The following licences qualify: (not an exhaustive list)

PD (Public domain) – user releases all rights to the image
CC-BY- (Creative Commons, attribution) – the user must be credited, but derivatives may be released under other licences.
CC-BY-SA- (Creative Commons, attribution, share-alike) – same as CC-BY- but derivatives may be released only under the CC-BY-SA licence

You may use either one of the above. To allow maximum compatibility across all Wikimedia projects, it is recommended to use {{CC0}}, {{Cc-by-4.0}} or {{Cc-by-sa-4.0}}.

Summary

Please add the following information to summary while uploading.

{{Information
|Description=
|Source=
|Date=
|Author=
|Permission=
|other_versions=
}}

Software and tips

Two popular SVG drawing software available are Inkscape and Adobe Illustrator. Inkscape is free and available for many platforms.

Draw images in the highest resolution possible.
For text please use a generic font such as Serif, Sans-serif. Sans is more suited for maps. The Wikimedia renderer rasterises all fonts using Arial, so use Arial regular to maintain appearance of the map.
In inkscape make sure that you unflow the text
Ensure that no embedded raster images are present
Always add metadata. In Inkscape, metadata can be added in the Document Preferences.

Map resources

Status

Current requests can be found at Category:Wikipedia requested maps in China.

All China

I have added a request to our SVG-talented people to draw a map showing Zheng He routes, or, even better, other diplomatic and military campaigns of the Yongle reign. Am willing to help with the data. Vmenkov (talk) 03:39, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

State

Currently none...

City

Currently none...