Editing Cartography (section)

{{Short description|Study and practice of making maps}}
{{Distinguish|Cartogram}}
{{Redirect2|Cartographer|Cartographist|other uses|Cartographer (disambiguation)|the song|Shrines (Purity Ring album){{!}}''Shrines'' (Purity Ring album)}}
[[File:Claudius Ptolemy- The World.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|A medieval depiction of the [[Ecumene]] (1482, Johannes Schnitzer, engraver), constructed after the coordinates in Ptolemy's [[Geography (Ptolemy)|''Geography'']] and using his second map projection. The translation into Latin and dissemination of ''Geography'' in Europe, in the beginning of the 15th century, marked the rebirth of scientific cartography, after more than a millennium of stagnation.]]

'''Cartography''' ({{IPAc-en|k|ɑːr|ˈ|t|ɒ|g|r|ə|f|i}}; from {{langx|grc|χάρτης}} {{lang|grc-latn|chartēs}}, 'papyrus, sheet of paper, map'; and {{lang|grc|γράφειν}} {{lang|grc-latn|graphein}}, 'write') is the study and practice of making and using [[map]]s. Combining [[science]], [[aesthetics]] and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an imagined reality) can be modeled in ways that communicate spatial information effectively.

The fundamental objectives of traditional cartography are to:
* Set the map's agenda and select traits of the object to be mapped. This is the concern of map editing. Traits may be physical, such as roads or land masses, or may be abstract, such as [[toponyms]] or political boundaries.
* Represent the terrain of the mapped object on flat media. This is the concern of [[map projection]]s.
* Eliminate the mapped object's characteristics that are irrelevant to the map's purpose. This is the concern of [[Cartographic generalization|generalization]].
* Reduce the complexity of the characteristics that will be mapped. This is also the concern of generalization.
* Orchestrate the elements of the map to best convey its message to its audience. This is the concern of [[#Map design|map design]].

Modern cartography constitutes many theoretical and practical foundations of [[geographic information system]]s (GIS) and [[geographic information science]] (GISc).