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Tony Phelps Forum Specialist Joined: 09 Mar 2003 No. of posts: 575 View other posts by Tony Phelps |
Posted: 16 Sep 2003 I am having a bit of trouble with regard to distribution maps for my books. I have the detail, more or less, but I have tried everything to get plain outline maps. These have to be quite varied, whole continents, parts of continents, island groups, etc. Although I am describing 240 species obviously in many cases more than one can go on a map. e.g. Cerophidion - Cent America. Macrovipera - N.Africa ' near East. Are there any good draughstpersons out there? or any other solutions. Its a pain as it is diverting me away from the text; I have a deadline, but cannot leave maps til last minute. Thanks Tony |
-LAF Senior Member Joined: 03 Apr 2003 No. of posts: 317 View other posts by -LAF |
Posted: 16 Sep 2003 I guess this is partly a problem with copyright of using existing maps and making a final product that is accurate and looks professional. By far the most obvious way to generate maps would be with the use of a GIS (Geographic Information Systems) package as undoubtedly of the shelf maps exist of all major aspect of the earths surface for these systems. It's then just a case of filling in the data. Not really my field though so you'd need to find someone who knows how these things work. My second thought was can you get in touch with Stephen Spawls, as the mapping in the venomous snakes of Africa book was, in my opinion, the best I've seen in a field guide, he might know what was used to generate those. I'll ask around about the GIS thing as I know a lot of free software now exists. Cheers, Lee. Lee Fairclough |
Tony Phelps Forum Specialist Joined: 09 Mar 2003 No. of posts: 575 View other posts by Tony Phelps |
Posted: 16 Sep 2003 Thanks Lee, Stephens a mate so yes I'll give him a call, the mapsin the East African guide wern't bad either as I recall. Cheers Tony |
Ewan Member Joined: 14 Jul 2003 No. of posts: 21 View other posts by Ewan |
Posted: 17 Sep 2003 Dear Tony Here At UCL Geography department we have a cartography unit who produce excellent maps and diagrams for publications and books. They do work both within the dept and for external clients. I believe their external work is charged at 25 pounds an hour - a very reasonable rate and approximately half the price of other bureaus in the area. If you wish to get on touch with them please email either Cath cpyke@geog.ucl.ac.uk or Elanor emcbay@geog.ucl.ac.uk They are on the web at: http://www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/drawing_office/ Good luck with the book Ewan Shilland Environmental Change Research Centre University College London Ewan Shilland Contract Research Scientist Environmental Change Research Centre University College London |
Tony Phelps Forum Specialist Joined: 09 Mar 2003 No. of posts: 575 View other posts by Tony Phelps |
Posted: 18 Sep 2003 Thanks Ewan, This sounds good, will put to publishers they have to foot the bill, but the fee sounds reasonable and after all I only want outlines, I will fill in the detail. Cheers Tony |
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