Editing Scale (map) (section)

===Bar scale vs. lexical scale===
In addition to the above many maps carry one or more ''(graphical)'' '''[[linear scale|bar scales]]'''. For example, some modern British maps have three bar scales, one each for kilometres, miles and nautical miles.

A lexical scale in a language known to the user may be easier to visualise than a ratio: if the scale is an [[inch]] to two [[mile]]s and the map user can see two villages that are about two inches apart on the map, then it is easy to work out that the villages are about four miles apart on the ground.

A [[lexicon|lexical]] scale may cause problems if it expressed in a language that the user does not understand or in obsolete or ill-defined units.  For example, a scale of one inch to a [[furlong]] (1:7920) will be understood by many older people in countries where [[Imperial unit]]s used to be taught in schools. But a scale of one [[French units of measurement|pouce]] to one [[French units of measurement|league]] may be about 1:144,000, depending on the [[cartographer]]'s choice of the many possible definitions for a league, and only a minority of modern users will be familiar with the units used.