Choice in Cartography

Maps cannot begin to show "everything" —  the map maker must decide which features are most important for the map's purpose. Raven Maps aren't designed as road maps, so we de-emphasize roads and make road shields very small, or leave them off altogether.  In general, we emphasize the physical landscape, and that inevitably comes at the expense of the road and place-name detail that a good road map will include. This is not a case of one type of map being better than another, it's a matter of what the map is for. The rise of in-car navigation screens allows us to have our cake and eat it too —  they will provide infinite local detail, so we don't have to overload our printed wall maps with type. (2/28/18)  Copyright information on the Open Street Map on the right