---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 09 Sep 1998 16:33:38 -0400
From: [log in to unmask]
To: Maps and Air Photo Systems Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Cartographic standards for labeling orientation
 
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Dear Colleague Dale Sanderson,
 
As I learned it since both european and (north and south) american
professors of surveying and cartographic disciplines, the convention is
that the user should be able to read every thing on the map while holding
it straight in face of h/h , first, or from the right hand (left hand at up
and right hand at bottom), whatever the orientation of the territory shown
on the map.
 
In the case of your road running generally north-south, means up-bottom, if
there is no chance and the road orientation runs always in the
second-to-fourth quarters (3-6 to 9-12 hours) direction (like this: \), the
label should be placed on the east/right side of the road (then over it),
with the name beginning from the north/up side (using latin alphabet, for
instance), in way to ease the reading with respect for the first straight
orientation.
 
I cannot answer if such a graphical and well-known convention (which I
practice and I accepted as convenient and rational) is officially adopted
even by cartographic agencies of various states and countries.
 
 
Yaïves Ferland, M.Sc. géomatique
Land Law Lab
Université Laval, Québec