Land-Water Contrast

One particular case is the land-water contrast. The differentiation between land and water on a map is often unclear. The reason for this arises through graphic elements being arranged in such a way, creating a conflict when reading.

During your group discussion, you were given an expression of the land-water-displaying problem. Land areas, if not presented correctly, are perceived as figures and water-areas as ground. The following solution for better differentiation exist – you may compare them with your own results: The problem was solved by vignetting at the coastlines. A continuous tone of increasing brightness, away from the coastline is best for reading and is more aesthetically pleasing. If you cannot make use of the vignetting technique, at least, surface-texture differences between land and water should be developed. One last suggestion is to arrange the shapes in a map frame to reduce the possibilities of ambiguous or reversible figures.