Editing Cartography (section)

===General vs. thematic cartography===
[[File:Orienteringskort bygholm 2005 detail.jpg|thumb|Small section of an orienteering map]]
[[File:Easter Island map-en.svg|thumb|Topographic map of [[Easter Island]]]]
[[File:Maps-for-free Sierra Nevada.png|thumb|Relief map [[Sierra Nevada (Spain)|Sierra Nevada]]]]

In understanding basic maps, the field of cartography can be divided into two general categories: general cartography and thematic cartography. General cartography involves those maps that are constructed for a general audience and thus contain a variety of features. General maps exhibit many reference and location systems and often are produced in a series. For example, the 1:24,000 scale topographic maps of the [[United States Geological Survey]] (USGS) are a standard as compared to the 1:50,000 scale Canadian maps. The government of the UK produces the classic 1:50,000 (replacing the older 1&nbsp;inch to 1 mile) "[[Ordnance Survey]]" maps of the entire UK and with a range of correlated larger- and smaller-scale maps of great detail. Many private mapping companies have also produced thematic map series.

[[Thematic map|Thematic cartography]] involves maps of specific geographic themes, oriented toward specific audiences. A couple of examples might be a [[Thematic map#Dot|dot map]] showing [[corn production]] in [[Indiana]] or a shaded area map of [[Ohio counties]], divided into numerical [[Choropleth map|choropleth]] classes. As the volume of geographic data has exploded over the last century, thematic cartography has become increasingly useful and necessary to interpret spatial, cultural and social data.

A third type of map is known as an "orienteering," or special purpose map. This type of map falls somewhere between thematic and general maps. They combine general map elements with thematic attributes in order to design a map with a specific audience in mind. Oftentimes, the type of audience an orienteering map is made for is in a particular industry or occupation. An example of this kind of map would be a municipal utility map.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog486/node/1848 |title=Cartography and Visualization Part I: Types of Maps |last=Dutton |first=John |website=[[Pennsylvania State University]] E-Education |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180911104035/https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog486/node/1848 |archive-date=2018-09-11 }}</ref>