Comments on: Dead-simple software for visualizing geographic data.

Question: Dead-simple software for visualizing geographic data.

willie11 — Tue, 20 May 2008 08:24:44 -0800

Dead simple mapping software for visualizing data? Any idea how to make something similar to these pretty maps without expensive and complicated GIS software?

I know I can trace a map in photoshop and adjust the colors myself, but is there a way to synch the variable color with my data?

Additionally, I'm open to a discussion on neat geographic data visualization tips/tricks/software/etc...

Thanks!

By: zsazsa

zsazsa — Tue, 20 May 2008 08:47:12 -0800

You can definitely do this sort of thing in R, which is freely available and takes out the expensive part, but not the complicated part.

By: bigmusic

bigmusic — Tue, 20 May 2008 09:05:45 -0800

Those maps aren't that complicated, you could probably use quite a few GIS's to make them (a few free ones - GRASS, MapMaker) But it's not like learning a photo editing program. It is complicated, no matter which route you go. It's almost fun though. =)

By: jadepearl

jadepearl — Tue, 20 May 2008 09:12:49 -0800

Map Maker? They provide a free version. You did not mention what OS you were operating on.

By: willie11

willie11 — Tue, 20 May 2008 09:23:53 -0800

jadepearl: Windows XP, OS X, & Ubuntu depending on where I am :)

By: desjardins

desjardins — Tue, 20 May 2008 10:35:03 -0800

If you're already familiar with Microsoft products, then Map Point will be "dead simple" to use. I don't know what you consider "expensive," though - it's $299. They have a free trial in your browser (but they make you register).

By: devilsbrigade

devilsbrigade — Tue, 20 May 2008 10:52:01 -0800

R isn't ideal for maps like this, and learning R is a far cry from dead simple. If you're around a university, the easiest thing to do would be to see if they have a GIS desk in one of their libraries. Once you have a good clean dataset, maps like this literally take 10 minutes to make in ArcGIS, if someone that knows how to use it is driving. There are free alternatives, but honestly, none of them are as quick as ArcGIS for 'doing the right thing.'

By: figTree

figTree — Tue, 20 May 2008 11:30:04 -0800

"Quantum GIS" is free, and less complicated than R (which is command line), GRASS (also command line). The industry standard is ArcGIS, which is big big bucks, and probably harder to use than Quantum GIS.

By: odinsdream

odinsdream — Thu, 22 May 2008 08:59:56 -0800

Google Docs has a Spreadsheet application that allows you to do some basic "heat-map" style things given a column of zip codes or state abbreviations and associated numbers.

Here's a demo.

By: Henrik

Henrik — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 06:08:32 -0800

Meanwhile, Geocommons Maker has been launched. You can create interactive maps displaying your uploaded data, and you can choose different visualizations and styles. Quite nice.