Getting to Know Symbols and Styles in ArcGISdownloads2.esri.com/.../UC07_GettingToKnowSymbolsAndStyles.pdf · • ArcGIS management of colors The first thing to understand about color

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UC 2007 Tech SessionsUC 2007 Tech Sessions 11

Getting to Know Symbols and Styles Getting to Know Symbols and Styles in ArcGISin ArcGIS

Aileen BuckleyAileen BuckleyDavid Barnes David Barnes

Jaynya RichardsJaynya Richards

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AgendaAgenda

•• Understanding symbols in ArcGISUnderstanding symbols in ArcGIS–– How symbols are definedHow symbols are defined–– How to design for speed and qualityHow to design for speed and quality

•• Understanding styles in ArcGISUnderstanding styles in ArcGIS–– Style ManagerStyle Manager–– Using Styles to make a well behaved mapUsing Styles to make a well behaved map–– Exporting stylesExporting styles

In this session, our goal is to explain how symbols and styles work so that you have greater control over map design and more efficiency in map production.

We’ll explain how symbols are created and managed in ArcGIS and we’ll give you tips that can be used to work with them more efficiently. Then we’ll show you some tricks for working with styles. This will help you understand how proper management of symbols and styles can help you make what we call a “well-behaved map”.

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mappingcenter.esri.commappingcenter.esri.com

Before we get started, I just want to point out that this presentation with all the notes about what we re saying will be posted on the Mapping Center web site – a new addition to the ESRI Support Site that offers all sorts of resources related to mapping – including our presentations. We will post this for your there so you don't have to take copious notes about this presentation.

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Cartography 101Cartography 101

•• ““SymbolSymbol”” on a map =on a map =graphic sign endowed graphic sign endowed with geographical with geographical meaningmeaning

•• ““Graphic marksGraphic marks”” = = the basic graphic the basic graphic elementselementson a map: points, lines, on a map: points, lines, polygons, pixels, textpolygons, pixels, text

•• ““Visual variableVisual variable”” = the = the visual characteristics of visual characteristics of the graphic marks that can the graphic marks that can be related to attributesbe related to attributes

Let’s start with a few basics about symbols in map making.

Symbols are signs on maps that carry geographical meaning to the map reader.

They are assigned to what cartographers call “graphic marks” – a GIS user will think of these as the basic points, lines and polygons on the map that you apply symbology to. Don’t forget that text is a symbol on a map as well, and rasters can also be symbolized.

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Table 6.2 in Table 6.2 in Designing Better MapsDesigning Better MapsCynthia Brewer, 2006, ESRI PressCynthia Brewer, 2006, ESRI Press

Cindy Brewer shares some really nice graphic examples of the visual variables in her book, Designing Better Maps. She also explains about these in more detail so we won’t go into it in this session.

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ExampleExample

Caribbean Sea MapCaribbean Sea Map

Let’s take a look at some examples of how geographic data are symbolized in a map that David Barnes, our demo guy here, has made. For this we will tour a map of the Caribbean Sea that was compiled to look like a historical map.

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Note on this map that we have some special point, line, and polygon symbols. We also have some wonderful text.

HillsignsThe hills, for example, are symbolized using what cartographers call “hillsigns” –

pictographic symbols that look a bit like the features they symbolize. These are actually marker symbols that have been applied to different classes of physiographic features, such as hills, mountains and mountain ranges.

Rhumb linesFor lines, we can take a look at the “rhumb lines”, or lines of constant direction. David

digitized these using the compass roses to connect lines that have the same bearing. These are simple line symbols which we will talk more about soon.

Coastal rakesDavid also used some special line pattern fills for some symbology. For polygons, we can

see that the area along the coasts have been given a special treatment to emphasize the land-water interface. This technique is a variation on the coastal vignettes that we have shown in the past – these are called coastal rakes and they were created by assigning the different buffers with the line pattern fills.

Ocean artDavid also did some clever things with marker symbols to add ocean art to the map – notice

the little ships and sea serpents in the water areas. TypeAnd finally, note some of the wonderful things that he did with type – like labels for the

Caribbean Sea and other water bodies, as well as the information in the cartouche at the top right.

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Symbols in the softwareSymbols in the software

•• Map contents that use symbolsMap contents that use symbols–– Geographic featuresGeographic features–– Map elements Map elements –– GraphicsGraphics

•• Build, edit and save your own symbolsBuild, edit and save your own symbols•• Building blocks of symbolsBuilding blocks of symbols

So, you can see that you can achieve some neat symbology with the software. But before we take you into the symbol design interface where you can create these, we want to explore some of the fundamentals about symbology in ArcGIS.

Let’s start with the basics:

Symbols are used not only to draw geographic features, but also to display the various map elements, such as legends, scale bars and north arrows, as well as any graphics you may add to the map, such as bounding boxes or lines that divide the space on your page layout.

Because they are used so extensively, you may sometimes want to create your own symbols. Before you do this, it would be helpful to understand the basic building blocks of symbols.

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Building blocks of symbolsBuilding blocks of symbols

•• ColorsColors•• FontsFonts•• Graphic files Graphic files

•• Does not include 3D symbols or cartographic Does not include 3D symbols or cartographic representationsrepresentations

There are three primary building blocks – colors, fonts, and graphic FILES. Note that we are talking here about 2D symbols – things are a little different for 3D symbols. And cartographic representations treat symbols a little differently as well. So in this presentation, we will stick to the more basic understanding of symbols in ArcGIS.

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ColorsColors

•• Color modelsColor models•• ArcGIS management of colorsArcGIS management of colors

The first thing to understand about color is that it is defined using a color model which is a system for specifying colors numerically according to their individual components.

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RGB

Cyan

BLU

E -

z

y - GREEN

RED - x

Yellow

Magenta

White(255,255,255)

Black(0,0,0)White(0,0,0)

Blue

Black(255,255,255)

Green

CYAN - x

YE

LLO

W -

z

y - MAGENTA

Cyan

BLU

E -

z

y - GREEN

RED - x

Yellow

Magenta

White(255,255,255)

Black(0,0,0)

Red

RGB CMYK

•• For computer screens and For computer screens and television monitorstelevision monitors

•• For electrostatic and inkFor electrostatic and ink--jet plotters jet plotters that deposit pigment on paperthat deposit pigment on paper

You may have heard of the RGB (red, green, blue) color model, for example. Another model, CMY (cyan, magenta, yellow) is visualized similarly but the colors are rotated on the axes.

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Black

Green120° Yellow

Red0°

Blue240°

HUE

SATURATION

100% White

VA

LUE

Magenta

HSV

•• When you want to change one component of colorWhen you want to change one component of color

Cyan180°

0% 100%

Another color model that ArcGIS supports is the HSV (hue, value, saturation) model. This model is good to use when you want to change one component of color. You can change the hue, or what we commonly thing of as “color”. You can also change the saturation of a color which is the extent to which it departs from a neutral color such as gray, or in simpler terms, its “colorfulness”. And you can change the value or the intensity of white in thecolor. I think this is simpler to understand than trying to change the red, green, blue or cyan, magenta and yellow components of color.

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TIPTIPManage colors in the Style Manager.Manage colors in the Style Manager.

TIPTIPColors will revert when a new ArcMap session is Colors will revert when a new ArcMap session is started.started.

ColorsColors

•• Color modelsColor models•• ArcGIS management of colorsArcGIS management of colors

The first thing to understand about color is that it is defined using a color model which is a system for specifying colors numerically according to their individual components. You may have heard of the RGB (red, green, blue) color model, for example.

It is helpful to know how ArcGIS manages color.1. You can define a color using any of the supported color models.2. We tag the color object with the model so we know how it was originally

created.3. Finally, you can convert between the color models – if you convert safely from

one to another (and not another one after that) because we use third party algorithms that are lossless. However, that only holds for the first conversion. You may notice that when you convert from RGB to CMYK and back to RGB, the conversion is lossy in terms of precision. The reason the conversion is lossy is because we store CMYK channel as integers between 0 and 100. We store RGB channels as integers between 0 and 255. Thus, RGB has more increments, and those are lost when you convert RGB to CMYK. CMYK to RGB to CMYK will maintain precision, but the K channel comes out as zero because we can't reliably reconstruct the K channel from RGB numbers.

A tip is to manage your colors in the Style Manager. If you want a new color, create it there. If you want to redefine it using a different color model, the best thing to do is create a new color in the Style Manger and delete the old one. WHY??? Because if you change the color interactively, ArcGIS will convert the colors numerically, but we don’t change the color that is tagged to the color object.

Sometimes we are asked why the color numbers change if you convert from one color mode to another and then back again. That might be a bug, but there is a solution – simply close your ArcMap session – when you open it up again, the original color definition will be there – remember, its’ because the color object has the original color definitions tagged to it.

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FontsFonts

The second building block is fonts. A font is a complete set of characters in a particular size and style of type. You’re probably familiar with fonts such as Ariel or Times New Roman. But some fonts contain graphic symbols rather than letters and numbers. These can be used to create what are called character marker symbols in ArcGIS.

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They can be used anytime the symbol calls for a marker symbol. These can be used to symbolize point, lines and polygon because markers can be placed along lines and they can be used to create the pattern in a fill.

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FontsFonts

•• Windows font directoryWindows font directory•• Kinds of fontsKinds of fonts•• ESRI uses True Type ESRI uses True Type

fontsfonts•• Sharing symbols that Sharing symbols that

have fontshave fonts

C:\\Windows\Fonts

True Type

Open Type

Postscript?

There are a couple of things you should know about fonts before you use them to create a symbol.

1. First, you have to have the font in the Windows font directory. This is usually located on your C:\ drive.

2. Second, there are different kinds of fonts – True Type, Open Type, and Postscript. You can tell what kind it is by the icon next to it in the Windows font directory.

3. Another thing to know is that ArcGIS symbols primarily use TrueType fonts but you may be seeing more Open Type fonts in the future. What OpenType adds is vastly improved character and language support based on Unicode. It also adds advanced layout features which were formally only available using "Expert Sets". Right now, tough, we use True Type. The advantage of using True Type is scalability. We also don’t use Postscript fonts because they are becoming a “dying legacy” in the font world.

4. A final and critical thing to know is that if you want to share your symbols with others, they need to have the font on their machine as well. If they don’t the marker symbol will be replaced with a character from a different font.

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Graphic filesGraphic files

•• ESRI supports both vector and raster graphic filesESRI supports both vector and raster graphic files–– .emf.emf–– .bmp.bmp

•• When to use .bmpWhen to use .bmp–– TransparencyTransparency–– Change colorsChange colors

•• When to use .emfWhen to use .emf–– Drawing performance gainDrawing performance gain–– ScalabilityScalability

Trees19.bmp

The third building block of symbols is graphic files. These can be either raster or vector depending on the file format.

ArcGIS supports two graphic file formats: enhanced metafiles (.emfs) and bitmap files (.bmps). .emf files can contain either raster or vector graphics or both. And .bmp files are always raster.

So which should you use?Use a .bmp file format if you want to have transparency – you can choose one color to be transparent – this is useful of you have white in your symbol and you also have a background that you want to be transparent – the trick is to make the background color in the symbol something that you would definitely not use otherwise in that symbol – like magenta. Then you can easily define that as the color that will be transparent on the map. Another advantage of .bmp files is that you can change colors. For .bmp files, there are three colors – the background color which you cannot change, the transparency color, which you set, and the foreground color which you can change.

Use an .emf file format if you want the symbol to scale nicely. A .bmp file is best used at the scale that it was created for since they don’t scale as well so rescaling degrades the symbol. For .emf files, you cannot change the colors like a a .bmp file. Another thing about .emf files is that they can be created and are supported by many professional graphics software packages, so they can be made in all sorts of software including PowerPoint and others.

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ESRI picturesESRI pictures

If you want to see some of the graphic files that we used to create some of our symbols, you can find them in the Styles\Pictures folder. You can use these to create your own symbols as well.

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TIPTIPFor .bmps, use either 8For .bmps, use either 8-- or 24or 24--bit colors.bit colors.

TIPTIPDrawing speed is related to the geometric complexity.Drawing speed is related to the geometric complexity.

TIPTIPIf you use a raster graphic file, that will cause the If you use a raster graphic file, that will cause the output to rasterize.output to rasterize.

Graphic file tipsGraphic file tips

We can offer a few tips about graphic files.

TIP – for .bmp files, use either 8- or 24-bit colors.

TIP – drawing speed is related to the geometric complexity. For .emfs, that means the number of vertices. For .bmps and raster .emfs, that means the size of the of the file. We try to keep ours to 512 x 512 pixels. And if you have a character marker symbol that uses a font, that will draw even faster, as long as there is only one layer in the symbol and it has simple geometry.

TIP – if you use a raster file (either .bmp or .emf), that will cause the output to rasterize which will impact the export and print performance.

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Picture fill patternsPicture fill patterns

ArcGIS uses both file formats for its picture fill patterns and for marker symbols that use pictures.

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Simple symbolsSimple symbols

•• Better performance for display, exporting and ArcGIS Better performance for display, exporting and ArcGIS Server Server

•• They use native Windows GDI techniquesThey use native Windows GDI techniques•• Marker, line, and fill symbolsMarker, line, and fill symbols

If you are concerned about performance in terms of display, exporting or ArcGIS Server, you should know about simple symbols. These use the native graphics device interface techniques for Windows.

There are three types of symbols available – markers, lines and fills.

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Simple marker symbolsSimple marker symbols

Simple marker symbols are limited to circles, squares, crosses, x’x and diamonds, but you can change the color of the symbol, its size, and its offsets. You can use an outline and you can set its size.

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Simple line symbolsSimple line symbols

Simple line symbols can be solid, dashed, dotted or a limited combination of these. For solid lines, you can change the width, but for any other line style, the width is limited to 1.0 pt or less.

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Simple fill symbolsSimple fill symbols

Simple fill symbols have a color and again an outline. Note that if you change the outline to something besides a simple line symbol, you will begin to impact your performance.

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TIPTIPOptions for lines are limited Options for lines are limited –– best if solid or only 1.0 best if solid or only 1.0 pt. size or less.pt. size or less.

TIPTIPBetter than using a multiBetter than using a multi--layer marker symbol or halo layer marker symbol or halo to show casing.to show casing.

TIPTIPGreat for fills Great for fills –– use whenever possible.use whenever possible.

Tips for using simple symbolsTips for using simple symbols

Here are a few tips for using simple symbols:

These symbols are better than some of the other options for showing a cased symbol which we will demo for you soon – or a symbol with an outline. You could also make a multilayer symbol or a symbol with a halo, but these will take longer to display, export and serve.

Simple symbol options for lines are somewhat limited, especially if you need a dash or dot pattern, because the size for these has to be 1.0 pt. or less.

The fill symbols are great though – try to use these whenever you can and you will be able to speed up your map production.

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TIPTIPESRI_Optimized provides better performance than ESRI_Optimized provides better performance than most other ESRI styles.most other ESRI styles.

ESRI_Optimized styleESRI_Optimized style

•• Optimized performance for display, exporting and ArcGIS Optimized performance for display, exporting and ArcGIS ServerServer

•• Line and fill symbolsLine and fill symbols

The ESRI_Optimized style contains both line and fill symbols that are designed to perform better while still maintaining a close visual appearance to their counterparts in the default ESRI style.

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Line symbolsLine symbols

ESRI style ESRI_Optimized style

Average time to display

Simple fill symbolsSimple fill symbols

Picture fill symbolsPicture fill symbols

Line fill symbolsLine fill symbols

MultiMulti--layer Line symbolslayer Line symbols

Cartographic line symbolsCartographic line symbols

Fill symbolsFill symbols

These graphs give you an idea of how much better the ESRI_Optimized style performs for display than the default ESRI Style. The symbols in the ESRI_Optimized style show an average improvement of about 60 percent in draw times over those in the default style. They use simple line symbols as the outline and the picture fill symbols use .emfs versus bitmaps.

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ESRI_Optimized fill symbolsESRI_Optimized fill symbols

Fill symbols can be simple fills, as with the simple symbols we just saw. Or they can be picture fills, but these are limited to .emfs to improve their performance.

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ESRI_Optimized line symbolsESRI_Optimized line symbols

With the line symbols, there are more options than with Simple Symbols. There can be cartographic lines, marker line symbols, and more.

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TIPTIPUse the Advanced Setting Utility to automatically find Use the Advanced Setting Utility to automatically find styles that you place somewhere other than the styles that you place somewhere other than the default location.default location.

Storage requirementsStorage requirements

•• FontsFonts–– C:C:\\\\WINDOWSWINDOWS\\FontsFonts

•• Graphic filesGraphic files–– A location you can remember and navigate to A location you can remember and navigate to

•• Implications for sharing your symbolsImplications for sharing your symbols

A few things to know about storage requirements -- all fonts have to be stored in the Windows font directory – this is where you would copy them out of if you want to share them. Fonts in a symbol are referenced to the files in this directory so if the font is not there, the symbol will not be drawn properly because some other font will be used to replace it.

Graphic files on the other hand, can be stored anywhere on the system. When you make a symbol with a graphic file, the image is copied into the object that is the marker symbol so if you move the graphic file later, the symbol will still be OK.

These storage requirement have some implications for when you share your symbols. If you share a symbol that references a font, you also have to share the font unless it is already on the machine that you re sharing to. On the other hand, if you share your picture marker symbols and fills, you do not have to share the graphic file that was used to create them because it is already in the object.

Here’s a tip -- you can use the ArcView Advanced Settings Utility to be able to automatically find styles that you place that you create somewhere other than the default location. Let’s take a minute and see how this is done.

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DemoDemo

Advanced ArcMap Settings UtilityAdvanced ArcMap Settings Utility

System pathsFirst, note that the executable file is located in your ArcGIS\Utilities folder. Double click the filename to start the utility. Click on the System Paths tab to see what your options are. The first location you can set relates to where ArcMap will automatically look for your style files. Change this if you want to store frequently used styles in some place other than the install directory for ArcGIS.

Symbols\Graphics tabWhile we’re here, let’s see what other things we can change relating to symbols and styles. If you click on the Symbols\Graphics tab you will see that you can change some other defaults, such as the color ramps and schemes and the background color for your maps. You can also set a new default marker size and line width. The symbology of your selections can also be changed.

Data Frame/TOC tabYou can also find some options that relate to symbols on the Data Frame/TOC tab. Here you can set another option that relate to rotation – this one for rotating your marker symbols with the data frame.

Raster tabOn the Raster tab, one option you might want to change is the default resampling mode. It is currently set to Nearest Neighbor – this is the option you would use for displaying rasters that have discrete classed data – like land cover. If you more often display continuous raster data, like DEMs and hillshades, then you could set the resampling mode to Bilinear Interpolation and your display will look a lit less pixelly.

Take a little time to see what other default setting you can change through this utility when you have a minute. Let’s move on now to talk about styles.

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Styles Styles –– assure a assure a ““wellwell--behaved mapbehaved map””

•• ““An organized collection of predefined symbols and An organized collection of predefined symbols and map elementsmap elements””

•• Microsoft Access database (.style file)Microsoft Access database (.style file)

Now that we’ve covered the building blocks, let’s talk about styles. A style is an organized collection of predefined symbols and map elements. These are stored in an Access database with a .style extension.

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Why Use StylesWhy Use Styles

•• Styles streamline the creation and management of Styles streamline the creation and management of symbolssymbols–– Style ManagerStyle Manager–– Sharing stylesSharing styles–– Export a styleExport a style–– Match to symbols in a styleMatch to symbols in a style

•• Styles promote standardization and consistency in Styles promote standardization and consistency in mapping productsmapping products–– Use domains with stylesUse domains with styles

Why use them? The first reason is that you can streamline the production of maps and symbols because you can work on all the symbols through a single interface that allows you to create, edit, copy and paste symbols. This interface is called the Style Manager. Once you create a style, you can also export it so you can share it with others. And one option for applying symbology is “Match to symbols in a style” which will automatically find the right symbols in a style by relating an attribute value to a symbol name.

A second reason to use styles relates to standardization of the symbology in your mapping products. Using a style, you can better assure that the symbology is consistent over all map products. You can also use domains with styles to further assure consistency.

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DemoDemo

Styles and Types of SymbolsStyles and Types of Symbols

Let’s take a little tour of the Style Manager and the kinds of symbols that are managed with it.

See demo notes.

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Marker symbolsMarker symbols

•• survey pointssurvey points–– Simple markerSimple marker

•• Hwy shields Hwy shields –– Character markerCharacter marker–– MultiMulti--layer symbollayer symbol

•• hydro pointshydro points–– X and y offsetX and y offset–– RotationRotation

•• TreesTrees–– MultiMulti--layer symbollayer symbol–– Color rampColor ramp–– Color ramp propertiesColor ramp properties–– Symbol levelsSymbol levels

•• Crater Lake LodgeCrater Lake Lodge–– Picture marker symbolPicture marker symbol–– TransparencyTransparency

See demo notes.

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Line symbolsLine symbols

•• Caribbean Sea rhumb linesCaribbean Sea rhumb lines–– Simple linesSimple lines

•• Caribbean Sea country boundaries Caribbean Sea country boundaries –– Cartographic lineCartographic line–– MultiMulti--layer line symbol layer line symbol –– TemplateTemplate

•• Crater Lake roadsCrater Lake roads–– Cased linesCased lines–– Symbol levelsSymbol levels

•• Missing Children mean vectorsMissing Children mean vectors–– ArrowsArrows

See demo notes.

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Fill symbolsFill symbols

•• Caribbean Sea coastal rakesCaribbean Sea coastal rakes–– Line fillLine fill–– Parchment fillParchment fill

•• Rim Village pathsRim Village paths–– MultiMulti--layer fill symbol using picture and simple fillslayer fill symbol using picture and simple fills

•• Rim Village treesRim Village trees–– MultiMulti--layer marker fill symbol using character markerslayer marker fill symbol using character markers

•• Crater Lake locator map sun glintsCrater Lake locator map sun glints–– Gradient fillGradient fill

See demo notes.

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Save Symbol to StyleSave Symbol to Style

Since we just spent some time crating a new symbol but not in the Style Manager, we should take a minute to save it to a style so we can reuse it later. You can do this simply from the Symbol Selector dialog. All you have to do is to click Save and you can specify the symbol name and a category. This will then be saved in your personal style. While we are talking about categories, notice a the top of this dialog that there is a category drop down option. If you select one of the categories that are listed, you will see only those symbols that are in the category you chose. This can make it easier to find a symbol you are looking for.

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Custom north arrowsCustom north arrows

•• They are unique in symbologyThey are unique in symbology–– Applied as a map element, modified as a character markerApplied as a map element, modified as a character marker–– Behavior is associated with the map data frameBehavior is associated with the map data frame

Creating a new north arrow element using several layered glyphs from the ESRI North font

ESRI provides quite a number of fonts with selections of glyphs from which you can easily make your own customized symbols. One of these areas of related glyphs can be found in the ESRI North Arrow font.

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ColorsColors

•• RGBRGB——red, green, bluered, green, blue•• CMYKCMYK——cyan, magenta, yellow, blackcyan, magenta, yellow, black•• HSVHSV——hue, saturation, valuehue, saturation, value•• GrayGray——gray shade rampgray shade ramp•• NamesNames——ArcInfo color namesArcInfo color names

See demo script.

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Concluding remarksConcluding remarks

Synergy between Synergy between GIS dataGIS data and and symbolssymbols -- the two the two primitives for map making with ArcGIS definition of primitives for map making with ArcGIS definition of cartographycartography

To close, we’ll leave you with a few parting words. The two primitives for map making with ArcGIS are the symbols and the data. You have learned here a little more about the symbols. To find about more about the synergistic relationship between these two primitives, attend the ArcMap cartography sessions that relate to cartographic design – there are a number of god options including our session tomorrow on “Mapping the Results of Your Analysis”.

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Thank you!Thank you!

Please fill out your surveys!Please fill out your surveys!

Thanks for your attention and please fill out your surveys.

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mappingcenter.esri.commappingcenter.esri.com

Don’t forget – you can soon find this presentation on the new Mapping Center Web site.

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Demo scriptsDemo scripts

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Style ManagerStyle Manager

Let’s take a look now at Style Manager.

Window layoutTo open the Style Manager, click on Tools on the top bar menu, then click on Styles and Style Manager. The left side of the window shows you the contents of the style. You can click on any folder to see its contents on the right side of the window.

View optionsYou have a number of view options of options – you can change the view of the folder contents using the buttons at the bottom right. •The first one displays the contents using large icons. •The second lists the contents and show a small icon. •The third shows the details for the symbols. In this view you have a couple more options.

Column HeadingsAt the top of the right hand side of the window, there are column headings – you may have to scroll over to the right to see them all. You can click on a heading to sort the contents. You can use these headings to categorize your symbols so that they can help you find what you want more quickly ---we will demo this for you later in the presentation.

Referencing a styleIn this window you can also reference style – click the Style button at the top right to see the list of all styles in the directory that is set in the ArcMap Advanced Settings Utilities style path. Click on any style to reference it. If a style is referenced, all its symbols will be displayed when you change symbols in the ArcMap document. So if we reference the ESRI [whatever] style, the next time I make a change to a marker symbol, all the ESRI [whatever] marker symbols will be displayed for me to choose from. To un-reference a style, click the Style button again and simply uncheck the style name.

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Style Manager Style Manager -- continuedcontinued

Referencing the ESRI styleOne thing to note, styles may contain a full or a partial range of symbols and elements. If we click on the personal style file folder here we can see that it contains less than a full range of symbols. Now when we click on the ESRI style we can se that it has a full range -- if you turn off the ESRI style, then try to add something to your map that is not contained in another referenced style, you will get only one default symbol to choose from. Say you want to add a north arrow, but you are only using your personal style and there are no north arrows there, then you will only have one option for a north arrow symbol. A safe thing to do is to leave the ESRI style reference all the time. Note, too, that you cannot unreferenced your personal style – it will always be referenced.

Copying and pasting symbolsAlso, you can copy and paste symbols between and within styles. Right click a symbol to copy it, then in another style, make sure you have the same folder type open and right click to paste it in. Maybe you want to change the name here, just click on the symbol name and type in the new one. You can also type in the category name here – this can help you organize your symbols and speed it up when you are looking for them in the Symbol Selector. We’ll demo that for you in a little while.

Editing a symbolTo edit a specific symbol, double click it. Here you can lock the color for layers in a symbol so the colors cannot be changed. Also notice that if we change the symbol type, the options in the dialog box change. We’ll be looking at many of these options before we are finished in this session.

Exporting a styleLet’s close Style Manager and see how you can export a style. Again, click on the Tools and Styles. One option here is to Export a map style – this will take all the symbology the current map document and create a new style. Any symbols or map elements on the map will be saved into their folders in the new style. Remember where you save the style so you can later share it with others.

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Looking at the mapsLooking at the maps

Let’s take a tour of symbols and styles by looking at some of the symbology for a few different maps. We’ll look at many of the contents in a style, but not all of them. We’ll start with marker symbols. For this demo, we’ll open a map of Crater Lake.

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Marker Symbols Marker Symbols -- 11

Marker SymbolsOn the Crater Lake map, we have a number of different types of marker symbols.

Crater Lake: Survey points – simple marker symbolLet’s start with the survey points. [Click the plus sign next to the survey points layer and click the symbol in the Table of Contents, then select Properties.] Let’s change the zoom to 400% to see the symbol better. Notice that these features are drawn with a 2.0 pt. black circle. Because these are so straightforward, a simple marker symbol is used to display these points. This will help our display performance.

Crater Lake: Highway shields – multi-layer symbolOther symbols are a little more complicated. Let’s use Label Manager to look at our highway shields. The Roads layer has a state highways label class. Click on Symbol and then Properties then Advanced Text. Here, click on Properties and Symbol and then their Properties to see how it was defined. Click on 400% so we can see this a little better. This is a multi-layer symbol – the top layer is a white oval that creates the fill and the bottom layer is a hollow black oval that creates the outline. These two layers were created from Character Marker Symbols that use the ESRI Shields font. The symbols in this and some other fonts are constructed so that they can overlay exactly allowing you to create multi-layer multicolored symbols.

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Marker Symbols Marker Symbols -- 22

Crater Lake: Highway shields – rearranging layersNotice that you can rearrange the layers so let’s take this opportunity to fix our highway shield by placing the fill under the outline, as it should be. You can also add layers using the plus button and delete layers using the x button. You can also copy and paste layers using the other two buttons.

Crater Lake: Highway shields – scale to fit textClick OK and OK again to get back to the Symbol Editor – note the check box option here – having this checked on means that the highway shield will scale to fit your text – so if you have highways with two digits the shield will be smaller than highways with three digits.

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Marker Symbols Marker Symbols –– 33

Crater Lake: Springs - offsetNow let’s look at Hydro Points layer. This time we’ll use the Layer Properties dialog to see the symbol. Right click the layer and select Properties and then click on the Symbology tab. Click the springs symbol to see its properties. Click 400% again to see it a little better. This is another character marker symbol. It references the second National Park System font. Notice that this symbol has an x and y offset. That’s because the symbol was created with the center not in the middle of the circle. But the symbol needs to be placed so that the circle is centered on the hydro point. So the x and y offsets assure that it is placed correctly on the map.

Crater Lake: Springs - rotationThere is another aspect to these symbols – on the Symbology tab, there is an option at the lower right to use some advanced effects. One is rotation –this is used for the spring symbols to assure that their tails are heading in the downstream direction as required in the mapping specifications. To do this you need an angle field in your attribute table. Let’s open the attribute table to see what it looks like. Notice the angle field here. This is what is used to make sure that the springs are correctly oriented.

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Line Symbols Line Symbols -- 11

Let’s move on the line symbols which we will look at with the Caribbean Sea map.Caribbean Sea: Rhumb lines – simple line symbolLet’s use a new map to look at line symbols – it’s the Caribbean Sea map that David created to try out some historical map effects. Let’s take a look at the rhumb lines, or lines of constant bearing. When we look at these symbol properties, we can see that David used a simple line symbol – this is a good choice because the lines are so simple.

Caribbean Sea: Countries – multi-layer symbolLet’s look at another line symbol on this map – the one for boundaries between countries. These were made with cartographic line symbols which give you lots of options for how they will display. Notice that this is a multi-layer symbol – like for our markers. In this case, there is a thicker brown line on the bottom and a thinner dashed line on top. Click on the top layer line and then the Template tab to see how the dash pattern was created. To start a pattern, click and drag the gray square – this sets the length of the pattern. Click on white squares to indicate dot or dash marks. Click on black squares to add a space to the pattern.

Use the interval to set the length of the template “square”. This specifies how many points each segment of the line pattern has assigned to it. This is essentially a multiplier for the template – it can be larger than one or fractions.

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Line Symbols Line Symbols -- 22

Crater Lake: Major roads – cased line roadsLet's go to another map to see an example of a symbol trick called casing –for this we’ll revisit the Crater Lake map. Let’s zoom into an area just south of Rim Village near the Visitor Center. And let’s move the Properties dialog box out of our way. Let’s look at the Roads layer and then take a look at the symbol properties for the major roads. Here we have cased line symbols for our roads. If we take a look at the symbol properties, you can see that they are once again multi-layer symbols. The bottom line is wider than the top line – this is how you get the edges around the fill. This is a much better way to create these symbols than using a line in the middle and two lines offset to either side of it. The reason is that these are much faster to draw and the offset can be a problem if there are sharp bends in the lines – at these locations you can get spikes and other odd looking cartographic remnants – so to avoid this just used the multi-layer solution we are showing you here.

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Line Symbols Line Symbols –– 33

Crater Lake: Major roads – symbol level drawingOne other things about cased lines – if you use these, you probably also want to use Symbol Levels – we’ll use them to specify the way that the lines join and merge. On the Symbology tab, click Advanced and Symbol Levels again to see how this works. Notice that there are two columns one called Join and the other Merge. We’ll turn all of them off to see what the default drawing looks like. Notice the orange cased lines – what we really want is to have the black casing join and the orange fills join. To do this, go back to symbol levels and click the Join option for the lines. Click Ok and Apply to see how this looks. That took care of that problem – but what about where white cased lines join the orange cased lines? Let’s pan to the southeast to see an example. Here we still have the black casing of the orange line cutting off the white line. To resolve this, use the merge option for symbol levels. This will merge the black lines in both layers and the fills for both layers. [Note that if we click the Advanced option here we have even more control because we can set options for the individual layers of multi-layer symbols.] Let’s take a look at the map now to see if our problem is fixed. See how the two roads lines look now? This is the effect we wanted.

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Line Symbols Line Symbols –– 44

Missing Children: Mean linear vectors- arrow linesLet’s take a look now at another effect for your lines. For this, we’ll open the Missing Children map – arrows were used on this map to indicate the mean direction and distance of abduction cases from Florida. Let’s look at the properties of the Abduction line symbols. This is a cartographic single layer line with an arrowhead. The arrowhead is added using the Line Properties option on the last tab. Click the line decoration you want – on our case it s a right facing arrow, and then click Properties. Here click Symbol and then Properties. Using a character marker symbol we can select an arrowhead from the ESRI Arrowhead font. Let’s zoom to 400% so you can see that I also set an offset for the line decoration. I had to do this because I was using a fairly small arrowhead in relation to the width of the line I needed. I determined the distance through trial and error.

Missing Children: Abduction linescased lines[Before we close this map, I want to take a moment to show you an advantage of using casings on your symbols. If David zooms into the area of green lines that flow from Florida to northern Ohio, you can now see that there are multiple lines flowing to the same place. The casings help us to know that there are two lines that are closely overlapping. Without the casing, you could easily confuse the symbols for one line. Notice too that type help us to know that there are tow liens since there are two labels.]

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Fill Symbols Fill Symbols -- 11

Caribbean Sea: Vignettes - coastal rakesLet’s take a look now at fill symbols. For the first example, we’ll revisit the Caribbean Sea map. Here we want to show you an advanced cartographic effect called “coastal rakes” – let's zoom in on an area so we can see these better. This is an effect that you can use to emphasize the land-water interface. For these, David created a series of buffers and each is symbolized using a line fill symbol. Let’s look at the properties of the fill symbols he used. Here you can see that he used a set of fill patterns that have a gradually increasing density of lines in the symbol – this gives the impression of more linework near shore and gradually less linework away from shore. This is like a lot of pattern in the water due to the crashing of waves near shore and the In the Symbol Properties dialog, note that David used a Line Fill pattern. To see the individual lines, you need to see the properties of the Line symbol so click on Line then Properties.

First, David set the color and the width and then he used the Template to set the spacing between the dashes. Notice that he made the spacing and length of dashes irregular – this is the effect he wanted so that the fills didn’t appear to have regular patterns.

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Fill Symbols Fill Symbols -- 22

Caribbean Sea: Data frame – parchment fillOn this map, David also used a picture fill symbol for the parchment look he wanted for a background. Jaynya created this fill symbol for him. Let’s see how he applied it. This is a property of the data frame so right click the data frame, select Properties, and then click the Frame tab. Click Change Symbol and Properties to see the parchment fill that he used. Notice that it is a Picture Fill symbol. This and all the other historical map symbols are available on Mapping Center.

Rim Village: Paths – multi-layer fill symbolFor the next fill example, we’ll go back to our Rim Village map to show you a multi-layer fill symbol.For the paths, David used a picture fill symbol for the sand on the top layer –he assigned this a dark brown color. Notice that he also used a brown outline for the top layer. For the bottom layer he used a simple fill with a lighter brown color.

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Fill Symbols Fill Symbols –– 33

Rim Village: Trees – character marker fill symbolNow we’ll show you how you can create a tree fill pattern for use if you need to symbolize polygons instead of the points that David had. Turn on the tree_polys layer and let’s zoom in a bit. Click the symbol so we can change its Properties. We’ll change the Type to a marker fill symbol and to change the marker properties we’ll click on Marker then Properties. Change the marker Type to a Character marker symbol and use the ESRI Forestry 2 font. Select an outline symbol for the top layer and give it a darker green color. Change the zoom to 400% and change the size of the symbol to 16 pts. Now copy and paste that symbol to a new symbol layer.

Rim Village: Trees – multi-layer symbolsChange the symbol to the fill for that tree symbol. Notice that like these are similar to the highway shields – there are fills and outlines that can be used together to create the multi-layer multicolored symbol.

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Fill Symbols Fill Symbols –– 44

Rim Village: Trees – copying and pasting symbol layersYou may have noticed that David simply had to find the fill symbol and change its color – the font and size were already set for him. When you copy and paste a layer in a symbol, you retain the font, character, size and color definitions. Just so you can see what happens if you don’t do it this way, David will add a new layer to the symbol. Notice that the new layer defaults to an 8 pt. black square from the ESRI Default Marker font. He would have to reference the font, the size and color all over again. Let’s delete this new layer and finish up with the tree marker symbol.

Rim Village: Trees – marker fill propertiesClick OK until you are back in the Symbol Property Editor. Now set the marker fill pattern to be “random” and click the Fill Properties tab to make the symbols a little more separated in the x and y directions. Click OK to change the outline to No color. Then click OK to see how these new symbols look on our map. You can see that the symbols clip at the edges of the polygons but this can easily be fixed using representations – we don’t have time to go into representations in this presentation so be sure to visit the Advanced Cartographic Effects sessions if you want to learn more about this symbol enhancement.

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Save Symbol to a StyleSave Symbol to a Style

Rim Village: PathsSince we just spent some time creating a new symbol but not in the Style Manager, we should take a minute to save it to a style so we can reuse it later. You can do this simply from the Symbol Selector dialog. All you have to do is to click Save and you can specify the symbol name and a category. This will then be saved in your personal style. While we are talking about categories, notice at the top of this dialog that there is a category drop down option. If you select one of the categories that are listed, you will see only those symbols that are in the category you chose. This can make it easier to find a symbol you are looking for.

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North ArrowNorth Arrow

ESRI provides a number of fonts with selections of related glyphs from which you can easily make your own customized symbols. The PowerPoint sample you see now was created within ArcMap using four glyph characters from the ESRI North font.

One of these areas of related glyphs can be found in the ESRI North Arrow font. As you’ll see, David will now navigate us to the north arrow properties editor.

There are many more symbols in the ESRI North font which can be assembled to make a colorful and unique north arrow. Modifying its appearance or creating a new North arrow symbol can be achieved in the Symbol Property Editor, and the North Arrow symbol is edited as any other character marker symbol.

David will now take us to the editing on the symbol layers:He will add four layers of the symbol.All of them will be selected from the ESRI North font.All of them will be Set to 36 points.David will now assign color, offset and size for each layer properties as follows:In order from the first layer to the last, they built on top of each other:

TOP 1st - Character 189, color Cherry Cola, locked2nd - Character 190, color Mango, unlocked3rd - Character 195, color Tecate Dust, unlocked , offsets x=1, y=(-1)4th -- Character 196, color Yucca Yellow, locked

Save symbol, give a new name of North Arrow UC07.This symbol is now available in the personal style.

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ColorColor

Style ManagerLet’s take a quick look at colors in the Style Manger – we’ll open the style manager and navigate to the colors folder of the ESRI style. Here we can click on any color to see its properties.

You can define colors in the Style Manager using five different color models. We’ve already seen CMYK, HSV and RGB. The Gray color model is for gray tints, and the Names model is a legacy of the named colors used with ArcInfo Workstation.

You can use the Eye Dropper tool to identify the RGB values of any color on your map. This tool can be very useful for example, if you may want the patches in your legend to display the opaque color values for symbols that have been assigned transparency. After converting the legend to graphics you can fine tune the colors in the legend to exactly match the map.

You can add the Eye Dropper tool to an ArcMap toolbar from the Page Layout category on the Commands tab of the Customize dialog box. Don’t worry if you didn’t get that information down – it is all in this PowerPoint presentation which will be available from the Mapping Center web site a couple of weeks after the User Conference.

Documents

Getting to Know Symbols and Styles in ArcGISdownloads2.esri.com/.../UC07_GettingToKnowSymbolsAndStyles.pdf · • ArcGIS management of colors The first thing to understand about color