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0 pointspixelesque3y ago0 comments

Sometimes, but not always: it likely depends on the style of the map and how accurate it is as well I think, and maybe depends on people's perception: thanks to computer UI buttons from the 90s, it is common for upper and left-most surfaces/bevels to be lighter, so there is some assumption there.

i.e. I think this type of thing: https://cartographart.com/minimalist/iceland_2_5k_orth_occlu...

works well, but that's not really a detailed map with normal cartographic details like roads and towns on overlaid with relief shading, so difficult to say.

However even if you do try and do it accurately, places on the equator are likely troublesome: i.e. the whole of Africa or something: you're unlikely to want to do the fully-accurate thing there of above the equator (or where the sun is) being shadowed from the south and below the equator being shadowed from the north, it'll likely be confusing in the middle.

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mdp20213y ago

> depends

In fact it works with the provided example but, empirically, it does not on area detail of detailed maps. Crests and valleys will switch.

> computer UI buttons

That is a consequence of consolidated established style, not a cause.

> the whole of Africa

It will work on the view of the full shape but it will not on the area detail, where the viewer will lose the notion of global position and attempt to interpret it like any other spot.

pixelesqueOP3y ago

> In fact it works with the provided example but, empirically, it does not on area detail of detailed maps. Crests and valleys will switch.

I don't think that's always the case though: I think it's likely similar to optical illusions: you can technically correctly see it both ways, but it depends on the person's brain and what they're used to as to how their brain sees it.

> That is a consequence of consolidated established style, not a cause.

I didn't say it was a cause, I said that it might lead people to be able to more readily recognise top/left as the lighting direction more readily as "raised" due to being used to computer UIs having top/left being lighter signifying raised elements, and them being more familiar with it that way.

mdp20213y ago

> always the case

Try it. In my initial experiments as a cartographer, as is normal for learners I did "fix it", and tried "boreal morning or afternoon real light directions": the effect will be wrong, in an actual map. ...Learners "make it the right way" and learn that the """right""" way is wrong.

> more readily

Sure consolidated UIs will contribute in the spiral of circular consolidation of natural ("brain") patterns and conventions, but the "light from top-left" use predates UIs by very many centuries: when we read a document it is more typical to have it lit, not darkened by one's own shadow from a body interposed between sun and document; when we gather around a fire we face it.

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0 pointspixelesque3y ago0 comments

i.e. I think this type of thing: https://cartographart.com/minimalist/iceland_2_5k_orth_occlu...

works well, but that's not really a detailed map with normal cartographic details like roads and towns on overlaid with relief shading, so difficult to say.

0 comments

mdp20213y ago

> depends

In fact it works with the provided example but, empirically, it does not on area detail of detailed maps. Crests and valleys will switch.

> computer UI buttons

That is a consequence of consolidated established style, not a cause.

> the whole of Africa

It will work on the view of the full shape but it will not on the area detail, where the viewer will lose the notion of global position and attempt to interpret it like any other spot.

pixelesqueOP3y ago

> In fact it works with the provided example but, empirically, it does not on area detail of detailed maps. Crests and valleys will switch.

> That is a consequence of consolidated established style, not a cause.

mdp20213y ago

> always the case

> more readily

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