How to create a world map that outlines countries using a cartographer

Question

I recently looked at a cartographer. I understand that we generate svg using kartograph.py, and then use svg in the kartograph.js file to display maps in the web interface.

I want to create something like http://kartograph.org/showcase/animated-symbols/ . But use a world map instead. The problem is that I'm very new to mapping and geodata. It is very difficult for me to find how to create svg only with country contours using kartograph.py.

There is an example for checking kartograph.py, which generates an svg world map, but its size is close to the size of 2 MB. This is normal? Does not delay the initial loading of the graph using svg at 2 MB (at least in a poor Internet connection).

Also the example uses some .shp files to draw a map where I can get these files.

In other simple words, I am trying to find a simple example of the end on how to use a cartographer, but it seems that one such thing is not available. I searched Google several times and just came back empty-handed.

any pointers on how to generate a simple world map with the contours of the country and which layers, filters and an explanation of several terms to start me will be very useful. thanks in advance

Answer 1

I wrote a blog post on how to get started with Kartograph. This blog post is available here http://vumaasha.imtqy.com/codehook/kartograph/geomapping/2013/11/24/using-kartograph.html . I hope this will be useful for people who are new to Kartograph and gis who are related to

Answer 2

Yes, 2 MB is probably too much. In the yuor configuration parameter, you can add "simplify": xxx to reduce the size of the output file. You will need to experiment with a hat to find a good balance between quality and size!

As for the .shp files, they are called shapefiles and are the standard format for describing geographic features. These are mainly the things you make maps from. There are many places where you can find shapefiles, for example. Www.diva-gis.org You will probably want to learn how to use a tool like QGIS to manage these files.

Good luck

Answer 3

There are many places to get shapefiles:

Here's a great consolidated source: http://freegisdata.rtwilson.com/

There are also many good tools to simplify shapefiles before exporting your maps.

This is the fastest and easiest to use form file optimizer I've seen. This is an online tool that will import shapefiles, GeoJSON or TopoJASON and export them in a simplified form (also in any of these formats). http://www.mapshaper.org With it, you can immediately see how your optimized shapes will look with a significant reduction in size.