Drawing Routes That Read Clearly

A GPS track is a record of where a device went. A route on a visitor map is an instruction for where the reader should go next.

The two are not the same drawing. A track carries every wobble, every lane change, and every pause at a junction. A route has to remove the noise and keep the decisions.

Start at the decision points

Before drawing a line, list the places where a reader has to choose a direction. The entrance, the fork, the turn after the bridge, the roundabout, the gate that looks closed, the final turn into the car park.

Those points are the skeleton of the route. The line between them can be smooth. If the line is accurate at the decision point and approximate between them, the route reads better than a track that is accurate everywhere.

This is why tracing a GPS file often produces a worse map than drawing the route by hand. The device recorded a hundred points on a straight road and three points at the turn. The map needs the opposite.

Give the line a hierarchy

Most maps have more than one route. A visitor route, a service road, a one-way loop, a walking path, a detour. If they all look the same, the reader has to trace each one to find out which is which.

A small set of line treatments carries a lot of information:

• Solid for the main route.
• Dashed for a walking connection or a seasonal route.
• A different width for a road that takes vehicles.
• An arrow for direction where the route is one-way.
• A different colour for a detour or a temporary route.

Three treatments on one map is usually enough. Five is a legend. The reader should be able to tell the main route from the others without reading the legend, because the main route is the one drawn most strongly.

In Tasmap a route carries its own line type, width, colour, and arrows. The settings travel with the route, so a copied map keeps the same visual language for the next event.

Direction is not decoration

A line with no arrow is a line that can be followed in either direction. On a loop, that is fine. On a one-way drive, it is a mistake that sends a trailer into oncoming traffic.

Put the arrow where the direction changes or where the reader has to commit. An arrow at the start of the line is useful. An arrow at the fork is better. An arrow at both ends of a one-way segment removes the doubt.

For a walking route, direction matters less, but the start and finish still matter. A reader who does not know which end is the beginning will walk the route backward and wonder why the numbered stops are in the wrong order.

Curves, corners, and the appearance of accuracy

A route that follows every curve of a road looks accurate at a large scale and messy at a small one. A route that cuts every corner looks clean and can be wrong at the turn.

The compromise is to follow the road closely at the decision points and simplify between them. Keep the curve that tells the reader the road bends around the lake. Drop the curve that is only a survey artifact.

The same rule applies to route points. A route with five hundred points is not more accurate than a route with thirty. It is harder to edit and slower to read. Use enough points to hold the shape, then stop.

For a route that has to be edited later, the points should sit at the places where the road changes character: the junction, the bridge, the gate, the switchback. Those are the points a future editor will need to move.

The line has to survive the output

A line that looks right on a desktop screen can disappear on a phone or turn into a hairline on a printed sheet.

A one-pixel line on a screen is roughly one pixel on the printer, which is invisible at 300 DPI. A line that is comfortable on a phone can be too heavy on an A2 poster. The width has to be chosen for the final output, and the final output has to be chosen before the drawing starts.

For print, print vs web map resolution covers the relationship between pixels, paper size, and DPI. For a route that will be printed and used outdoors, the line should be wider than the same route on a phone.

Routes and places have to agree

A route that ends at a marker should end at the marker, not twenty meters away. A route that passes a place should touch the place, not float beside it.

This is where snapping helps. Tasmap lets route points snap to existing places, so the line ends on the marker. The reader sees one destination, with no gap between the pin and the line.

The same care applies to the start. If the route begins at the car park, the first point belongs at the car park entrance, not at the centre of the car park polygon. The reader needs the entrance.

Test the route on the ground

A route can be internally consistent and still wrong. The turn may be closed, the path may be private, the gate may be locked after five.

Walk or drive the route once with the map open. The errors that survive a desk review usually show up at the first junction. If the route is for an event, run it on the event day, when the cones and the temporary signs are in place.

For a race or a ride, the route also has to work at speed. A turn that is obvious at walking pace can be missed at thirty kilometres an hour. Cycling event route map principles covers the advance warning and the repeated confirmation that fast readers need. For the file formats behind a route, GPX tracks vs waypoints vs routes explains what each one carries.

The test

Give the map to someone who has not seen the route. Ask them to describe the first three turns without reading the article. If they can, the line is doing its job.

A reader who follows the route once and does not have to stop and re-check the map has used it correctly. Tasmap keeps the route, its line style, and the places it connects in one editable map.