Hi!

I've been logging for some years, not much, but enough to get a picture with LCM-maps of what's bellow the boat.
The purpouse is recreational lobster fishing.

Now with 1.6 the game has changed and the inspiration flows again :

Though I feel somewhat lost when it gets to choosing suitable colors etc., I know HOW to do it.
But the options are so many :)

It's always good to get some tips from others about design.

So the question is: Any recommendations when designing maps for open sea/close to island but not close enough :)

This is bacically the area I'm mapping for now. (the map is just a first test to see how colours is presented, so pay no attention to this as reference :))






Kind regards,
Kristoffer

Ankfoot,

I'm sure others will chime in with their own thoughts, but here's a few of mine..

Sacrilege I know, but I think bright, multi-coloured maps are great for selling software, but not always the best option for viewing out on the water. I like to keep things relatively clean, with perhaps just a few shades to differentiate depth areas and let other things such as waypoints and tracks show up clearly.

You need to think about what it is you actually want to be able to see when you are out on your boat. I'm guessing you are more concerned with seeing specific lobster-holding areas, such as holes and ledges, and one of the great things about making your own map is that you can tailor it to your exact requirements, and also make as many different versions as you need for different conditions, seasons etc. Maybe consider creating a user map and individually styling some of these specific areas to highlight the features of interest? You could combine that with a more general/low key shading of the depths to give a bit of the best of both worlds.

As for colours - this very much depends on what your unit is capable of showing. For HDS and later (and Elite HDI) you can use transparency in user maps to give a really nice gradation of a single colour shade - perhaps coupled with some specific colours for particular areas of interest. Using transparency also makes it very easy to change the whole colour of the map if you want to experiment. Things are a bit more limited for older units, but there's still plenty of scope..

Good luck - it would be great to see what you come up with!

Matt

There are a lot of things to take into account when choosing color specifications.

One of the biggest things is indoor display versus sunlight readable. What I've noticed on a lot of sunlight screens is that it is very difficult to discern between very light and very dark colors in comparison to computer monitors and the best color separation is between mid level colors.

Users also tend to prefer a logarithmic scaling to color that is consistent water body to water body. By this, I mean a lot more scaling done meter to meter when you are in shallow water than if you are in deep water. If you are targeting individual features within the water, you can isolate just those depth ranges that you are interested but it's difficult to gauge exactly what every user will be looking for in a generic map. If you are basing the color scale on the maximum depth of the lake, it is often difficult to gauge differences between lakes and lakes that are only deep in very isolated areas are uselessly shaded in shallow portions of the lake.

The more colors you use for water, the more difficult it is to both discern objects on top of the water as well as water from land. This is why it's not uncommon for most major mapping providers to do a light blue to dark blue or dark blue to light blue variation to represent depth shading. More colorful ranges would only be to isolate very specific ranges but shouldn't typically be used for a generic map.

I thank you both for your thoughts and advice, all makes perfect sense.

It's easy to fall down the multicolor trap when you suddenly have all these posibilities and are used to be stuck with ugly LCM :)

I'll be sure to post a picture as soon as I have something that I'm somewhat happy with.

Again, thanks for your replies :)