In this post, I will demonstrate my preferred workflow for creating maps specifically designed for articles, posters, and brochures. I have previously shared about my time as a National Park Service ranger and how it inspired me to pursue a career in GIS and cartography. Due to this link, I frequently choose a national park as the area to showcase cartography methods and new features in Esri software.
The workflow I am referring to is sometimes called the ArcGIS-to-Adobe Illustrator workflow. However, this name overlooks a crucial component: ArcGIS Maps for Adobe. I had the opportunity to present this workflow with my Esri colleague, Julia Olson, at the North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS) conference in October. Since the conference was held in Tacoma, Washington, our emphasis naturally fell on the three stunning and expansive national parks in Washington state: Mount Rainier, Olympic, and North Cascades National Parks
The Scenario: Publication with a need for high-end maps
Sometimes publications that require maps to help tell their stories make the mistake of squeezing maps into an area on their grid (or publication layout) that the mapmaker did not intend. This oversight leads to poor map legibility and resolution, or the need to crop the maps to fit the grid. On the other hand, with thoughtful planning, graphics teams can provide precise specifications to mapmakers, ensuring optimal results for maps and other essential graphics. ArcGIS Pro and Maps for Adobe offer a streamlined workflow for GIS and cartography teams, ensuring exact map specifications are maintained when creating maps tailored for publications.
1. Set up ArcGIS Pro layouts to fit publication’s map specifications
The first step in this ArcGIS-to-graphic design workflow is to create new ArcGIS Pro layouts that match the publication grid specifications. Of course, this is after the GIS team adds required data layers and performs analyses in ArcGIS Pro. For this national park article, there are technically four maps: three national park-specific maps and one Washington state overview map. The map sizes are shown in the article grid’s placeholders in the image below, with measurements in inches. However, in ArcGIS Pro users have the flexibility to use the unit of measurement they prefer.
After creating a new layout in ArcGIS Pro (Insert > New layout > Custom sizes), you can name the layout (General tab) and set the sizes in the Page setup tab. The image below illustrates the page size configuration for the North Cascades National Park layout, located in the lower left corner of the previous image.
2. Place your map in the layout
When placing your map(s) in their respective layouts, make sure the map fills the entire extent of the layout. I point this out because ArcGIS Pro layouts can have non-map spaces. For instance, in the first image below, the map occupies most of the layout, but there are also spaces with elements, such as title, scale bar, grid tables and references. Unless you intend to include these non-map elements in the publication, your map should fill the entire layout so that it abuts the layout’s edges, as shown in the second image below. This ensures the map fits precisely within the magazine layout.
3. Export Maps as AIX files
After setting up layouts and placing maps in them, the next step is exporting map layouts from ArcGIS Pro as AIX files. AIX is a format compatible with Adobe Illustrator when ArcGIS Maps for Adobe is installed. More details about AIX files are provided in the final step below.
4. Open AIX in Adobe Illustrator with Maps for Adobe
The final step is opening the AIX files in Adobe Illustrator using Maps for Adobe. Begin by signing in to Maps for Adobe using ArcGIS Online or Enterprise credentials. Once the files are opened, you will find an organized Illustrator layer structure that mirrors the layer order you established in ArcGIS Pro. Additionally, the artboard size of an AIX map in Illustrator will match the layout size you initially set in ArcGIS Pro. This alignment ensures that when maps are added to the grid, they adhere to the publisher’s specifications.
Note that when you open an ArcGIS Pro-generated AIX file, you may see a friendly message asking if you want to convert your points to Adobe Illustrator symbols. Further details on this new exciting feature can be found here.
The well-structured layers in the AIX file facilitate a seamless transition to graphic design in Adobe Illustrator. Once the map is saved as a .AI file, users can conveniently incorporate additional data layers from ArcGIS Online, Enterprise, or even local files directly into their maps within Adobe Illustrator. For further information on this functionality or to download Maps for Adobe, visit the ArcGIS Maps for Adobe product page.
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