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The Pablo Map Engine
All components use the drawing engine Pablo to produce (draw) the graphics.
Pablo traverses the geo-data structures which forms the basis of the map, and draws the various layers in the map composition. The cartography is specified with the help of Designer
Projections
Since the Earth is round, and the maps flat, you will always have to compromise when drawing a map. A map which is drawn to navigate by has to ensure that angles are correct all over the map so that the course can be calculated from this. If the maps is to be used to organize properties the areal sizes has to be prioritized so that the map scale is the same everywhere on the map.
Such adaptations are solved by selecting a projection, and Pablo handles projections freely both in regards to the source data, and the produced map.
Geo-data
Geo-data is what we call information about "things" which has a geographic position in the world, like lakes, roads, houses, height contours etc.
The geo-data which are drawn by Pablo comes from a wide range of sources, both as vector data and raster. The most common formats we use comes as SOSI (vector) or JPEG (raster), but we have extensive experience with importing the most obscure formats.
The drawing engine draws on to the socalled "canvas", and we have canvases for making raster files, vector files and special items such as name indexes.
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Raster
Raster files are images which are described as a matrix with pixels in different colors. These are produced with the intent of being shown in a specified resolution. Typical formats are BMP, JPEG, TIFF, GIF, PNG and others.
Raster images can be improved by a technique called anti-aliasing, which removes some of the worst jagged look on diagonally lines. This is done by mixing colors to make the lines look smoother and cleaner.
Vector
Vector files are resolution independent images which are suited for high resolution printing, for example in newspapers, map books and other printed media.
Here the map is described geometrically as lines, areas and texts, and the various themes in the map are placed on their own layer. This makes it easy to edit the map further after it has been produced, e.g by moving text, changing the color of lakes and so forth.
Typical vector formats are PS (postscript), AI (Adobe Illustrator), EPS and SVG.
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