The Physical Map of the World owes its inspiration to the National Geographic Society. The maps published by National Geographic during the 1960s and 70s, as the manual era drew to a spectacular close, are some of the best small-scale physical maps ever produced. Painted by artists Heinrich Berann, Tibor Tóth, and John Bonner, innovations included dramatic sea-floor topography and terrestrial environments depicted with natural colors. The resulting maps were uncommonly attractive, easy to understand, and revealed the intricate natural world to readers.Attempts by digital cartographers to produce similar physical maps have been less than fully successful, however. Digital map art, although highly accurate, tends to have a mechanical appearance lacking the visual appeal of the best manual art. That National Geographic today still uses manual art for world physical maps indicates the existence of a quality gap. This project and the techniques discussed here attempt to raise the aesthetic level of physical world maps produced digitally.
