Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
GORDON/CARTAGRAM, LLC
Steven Gordon/Cartagram, LLC
When cartographer Steven Gordon creates a map with a terrain image in the
background, he has to ensure that type is not lost in the mountains of the
image. For this map of North Carolina's Jackson County, Gordon received
directions to create a bold, colorful terrain image by his client,
The Sylva
Herald
. He began the map by creating the terrain image in Photo-shop,
placing it in the Illustrator file, and positioning it on the artboard. After
creating the type labels, Gordon opened the Appearance panel, chose Add
New Stroke from the panel menu, and dragged the Stroke attribute below
Characters in the panel. Next, he set the width of the stroke to 0.5 pt using
the Stroke Weight menu and then clicked the Stroke attribute's color icon to
pop up the Swatches menu and selected the white swatch. Gordon wanted
to soften the contrast between the white stroke and image behind it and
decided to add a white glow around the type. To do this he clicked
Characters in the Appearance panel and then clicked the Add New Effect
icon and chose Stylize> Outer Glow. In the Outer Glow dialog, he clicked
the color picker, selected white, and changed Opacity to 100% and Blur to
0.04 inches to complete the effect.
