Hi

I'm looking for a software program that would help me draw diagrams
like the London Tube Map. Any Ideas?

thanks

Willem Kossen

wkossen wrote:
I'm looking for a software program that would help me draw diagrams
like the London Tube Map. Any Ideas?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_GIS_software

ESB

On Nov 9, 10:38 am, wkossen wrote:
Hi

I'm looking for a software program that would help me draw diagrams
like the London Tube Map. Any Ideas?

thanks

Willem Kossen

I use a general-use illustration package called Inkscape (http://
www.inkscape.org/), though I'd be interested in anything that makes
the process of drawing this style of map more automated. It's a right
pain when you find a problem and have to re-align huge great chunks
(like Station names not fitting in the spaces you've left for them and
thus requiring you to increase the gap, which then messes up your
interchanges and diagonals.

On Fri, 9 Nov 2007, Ernst S Blofeld wrote:

wkossen wrote:

I'm looking for a software program that would help me draw diagrams
like the London Tube Map. Any Ideas?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_GIS_software

That's like suggesting a pair of compasses when someone asks how to draw a
straight line. For drawing a Beckish diagram, geographical software is the
last thing you want.

tom

--
Ten years on, and there is still nothing like this bizarre tale of
biomechanical space madness.

Tom Anderson wrote:
That's like suggesting a pair of compasses when someone asks how to draw
a straight line. For drawing a Beckish diagram, geographical software is
the last thing you want.

And your suggestion is? That's as helpful a comment as taking as pair of
compasses and shoving one up each nostril. Aren't crass analogies fun!

GIS software is ideally suited to manipulating vector information,
complete with node labels etc. certainly more so than a simple graphics
package. As we have no idea where the OP is starting from or what he
wants from a 'tube map' (a schematic, geospatial map or otherwise), the
given list of software is comprehensive enough to cater for most mapping
needs.

For sake of completion here is another list;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...aphics_editors

ESB

On 10 Nov, 01:14, Ernst S Blofeld
wrote:
Tom Anderson wrote:
That's like suggesting a pair of compasses when someone asks how to draw
a straight line. For drawing a Beckish diagram, geographical software is
the last thing you want.

And your suggestion is? That's as helpful a comment as taking as pair of
compasses and shoving one up each nostril. Aren't crass analogies fun!

GIS software is ideally suited to manipulating vector information,
complete with node labels etc. certainly more so than a simple graphics
package. As we have no idea where the OP is starting from or what he
wants from a 'tube map' (a schematic, geospatial map or otherwise), the
given list of software is comprehensive enough to cater for most mapping
needs.

For sake of completion here is another list;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...aphics_editors

ESB

Microsoft visio has a nice little set of templates and tools for doing
metro type plans. It is easy to get something up and running quickly,
but obviously not as beautiful or professional as the actual tube map!

Ian

On Sat, 10 Nov 2007, Ernst S Blofeld wrote:

Tom Anderson wrote:

That's like suggesting a pair of compasses when someone asks how to
draw a straight line. For drawing a Beckish diagram, geographical
software is the last thing you want.

And your suggestion is?

Inkscape, which someone had already suggested. Any other vector graphics
editor would be about as good.

Which is still not ideal - you'd really want something that did some kind
of constraint-based graphics. Like what Powerpoint does with arrows - you
can draw a couple of boxes or something, and draw, say, a right-angle
arrow connecting them, and if you move one of the boxes, the arrow sorts
itself out. It's not quite what you need for this problem, though, and i
don't know anything which does that.

Having thought about it, i'm going to change my suggestion, though - i
think the OP needs Python and the ReportLab PDF library .

That's as helpful a comment as taking as pair of compasses and shoving
one up each nostril. Aren't crass analogies fun!

GIS software is ideally suited to manipulating vector information,
complete with node labels etc. certainly more so than a simple graphics
package.

I am skeptical about this. Are you saying a GIS tool is better for
straightforward drawing than a drawing tool? Is there really not
geographical stuff which is going to get in the way in this case?

As we have no idea where the OP is starting from or what he wants from a
'tube map' (a schematic, geospatial map or otherwise), the given list of
software is comprehensive enough to cater for most mapping needs.

I'm having trouble thinking of anything that the term "the London Tube
Map" could refer to that isn't substantially like this:

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloa...d-tube-map.pdf

For sake of completion here is another list;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...aphics_editors

That's a good link.

tom

--
**** bitches, you know how I swang. I gets my cinna-on at the
Cinna-bon. -- K-Real

Tom Anderson wrote:
On Sat, 10 Nov 2007, Ernst S Blofeld wrote:

Tom Anderson wrote:

That's like suggesting a pair of compasses when someone asks how to
draw a straight line. For drawing a Beckish diagram, geographical
software is the last thing you want.

And your suggestion is?

Inkscape, which someone had already suggested. Any other vector graphics
editor would be about as good.

Which is still not ideal - you'd really want something that did some
kind of constraint-based graphics. Like what Powerpoint does with arrows
- you can draw a couple of boxes or something, and draw, say, a
right-angle arrow connecting them, and if you move one of the boxes, the
arrow sorts itself out. It's not quite what you need for this problem,
though, and i don't know anything which does that.

Having thought about it, i'm going to change my suggestion, though - i
think the OP needs Python and the ReportLab PDF library .

That's as helpful a comment as taking as pair of compasses and shoving
one up each nostril. Aren't crass analogies fun!

GIS software is ideally suited to manipulating vector information,
complete with node labels etc. certainly more so than a simple
graphics package.

I am skeptical about this. Are you saying a GIS tool is better for
straightforward drawing than a drawing tool? Is there really not
geographical stuff which is going to get in the way in this case?

As we have no idea where the OP is starting from or what he wants from
a 'tube map' (a schematic, geospatial map or otherwise), the given
list of software is comprehensive enough to cater for most mapping needs.

I'm having trouble thinking of anything that the term "the London Tube
Map" could refer to that isn't substantially like this:

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloa...d-tube-map.pdf

For sake of completion here is another list;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...aphics_editors

That's a good link.

I seem to remember asking someone at LU years ago what they used to draw
and redraw the Tube map - I think it was Adobe Illustrator.

Dave A

On Thu, 15 Nov 2007, Dave A wrote:

Tom Anderson wrote:
On Sat, 10 Nov 2007, Ernst S Blofeld wrote:

Tom Anderson wrote:

That's like suggesting a pair of compasses when someone asks how to draw
a straight line. For drawing a Beckish diagram, geographical software is
the last thing you want.

And your suggestion is?

Inkscape, which someone had already suggested. Any other vector graphics
editor would be about as good.

I seem to remember asking someone at LU years ago what they used to draw and
redraw the Tube map - I think it was Adobe Illustrator.

I think this is true. If you open a copy of the tube map in Illustrator,
all the objects are quite well-behaved, which suggests to me that it was
drawn in Illy, and retains all the Illy-specific metadata which makes this
possible.

Okay, rooting around in the metadata of a copy of lon_con.pdf i have to
hand says, under 'Description':

Created: 26/10/06 16:28:35
Modified: 9/1/07 14:40:01
Application: Adobe Illustrator(R) 8.0

And in the PDF properties:

pdf:Producer: Acrobat Distiller 6.0 for Macintosh
pdf:Author: Transport for London
pdf:Creator: Adobe Illustrator(R) 8.0

So it looks like they draw it with Illustrator 8, and then make the PDF
with Distiller 6. I guess Illustrator 8 either couldn't save straight to
PDF (CS2, which i have, can), or they don't like the PDFs it makes.

The PDF uses the font 'NJFont', which i assume is New Johnston; it doesn't
embed it, so when i open the document, it gets substituted with what looks
to me like Lucida Grande, which gives the map a subtly weird look. Quite
nice, though.

Couldn't resist the urge to tinker:

http://flickr.com/photos/twic/2038325188/

Bonus nerd quiz: spot the three fantastic cities referenced.

tom

--
Come on thunder; come on thunder.

On Fri, 16 Nov 2007 17:48:19 +0000, Tom Anderson
wrote:

So it looks like they draw it with Illustrator 8, and then make the PDF
with Distiller 6. I guess Illustrator 8 either couldn't save straight to
PDF (CS2, which i have, can), or they don't like the PDFs it makes.

I suspect the latter. I'll check when I get to work tonight - I think
we still have one machine without CS2... :-)