{"id":2983823,"date":"2026-10-01T12:20:31","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T19:20:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/?post_type=blog&#038;p=2983823"},"modified":"2026-10-01T12:20:31","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T19:20:31","slug":"how-to-make-illuminated-tanaka-contours-in-arcgis-pro","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-pro\/mapping\/how-to-make-illuminated-tanaka-contours-in-arcgis-pro","title":{"rendered":"How to make illuminated (Tanaka) contours in ArcGIS Pro"},"author":6971,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":""},"categories":[22941],"tags":[26451,92942,24141,24321,24401],"industry":[],"product":[36561],"class_list":["post-2983823","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mapping","tag-cartography","tag-contours","tag-elevation","tag-geoprocessing","tag-terrain","product-arcgis-pro"],"acf":{"short_description":"Here's how you can give contours a better sense of uppy-downiness.","flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<p>Contour lines show you the overall terrain of a place by connecting equal elevation (or whatever data you happen to be mapping). They do a lot of things well, like showing the angle and steepness of a slope, and providing a sense of the landscape&#8217;s roughness and topographic general patterns. But there&#8217;s a bit of a weakness. In complex areas, it may not be clear (especially when looking close at large scales) if the slope is headed up or down. Valleys can look like ridges, hills can look like depressions, etc.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":{"ID":2983826,"id":2983826,"title":"ContoursNormal","filename":"ContoursNormal.png","filesize":309707,"url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/ContoursNormal.png","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-pro\/mapping\/how-to-make-illuminated-tanaka-contours-in-arcgis-pro\/contoursnormal","alt":"Traditional contours are nice and all, but it can be hard to discern uphill vs downhill.","author":"6971","description":"","caption":"","name":"contoursnormal","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":2983823,"date":"2026-10-01 18:12:42","modified":"2026-10-01 18:13:11","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1605,"height":954,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/ContoursNormal-213x200.png","thumbnail-width":213,"thumbnail-height":200,"medium":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/ContoursNormal.png","medium-width":439,"medium-height":261,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/ContoursNormal.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":456,"large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/ContoursNormal.png","large-width":1605,"large-height":954,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/ContoursNormal-1536x913.png","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":913,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/ContoursNormal.png","2048x2048-width":1605,"2048x2048-height":954,"card_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/ContoursNormal-782x465.png","card_image-width":782,"card_image-height":465,"wide_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/ContoursNormal.png","wide_image-width":1605,"wide_image-height":954}},"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/ContoursNormal.png"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<p>But we can &#8220;illuminate&#8221; contours to give them an implied sense of uphill and downhill. When we peer straight down at a map, our visual systems generally assume a light source in the top-ish left-ish. So if we hack this assumption and bake a bit of light (top-left facing) and dark (bottom-right facing) into our contours, we create an almost 3D sense of terrain. All with simple contours, a bit of imagination, and a blend mode.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":{"ID":2983829,"id":2983829,"title":"ContoursIlluminated","filename":"ContoursIlluminated.png","filesize":616002,"url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/ContoursIlluminated.png","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-pro\/mapping\/how-to-make-illuminated-tanaka-contours-in-arcgis-pro\/contoursilluminated","alt":"Illuminated contours imply uphill or downhill, by hacking our brain's assumption of a top-left light source.","author":"6971","description":"","caption":"","name":"contoursilluminated","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":2983823,"date":"2026-10-01 18:17:36","modified":"2026-10-01 18:19:49","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1605,"height":954,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/ContoursIlluminated-213x200.png","thumbnail-width":213,"thumbnail-height":200,"medium":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/ContoursIlluminated.png","medium-width":439,"medium-height":261,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/ContoursIlluminated.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":456,"large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/ContoursIlluminated.png","large-width":1605,"large-height":954,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/ContoursIlluminated-1536x913.png","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":913,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/ContoursIlluminated.png","2048x2048-width":1605,"2048x2048-height":954,"card_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/ContoursIlluminated-782x465.png","card_image-width":782,"card_image-height":465,"wide_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/ContoursIlluminated.png","wide_image-width":1605,"wide_image-height":954}},"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/ContoursIlluminated.png"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<p>It&#8217;s a lovely effect and incredibly useful technique. Illuminated contours are often called Tanaka contours after Kitiro Tanaka, a professor who defined the math to describe the technique in the 1950s. There are a handful of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/figure\/Left-Illuminated-contour-lines-on-a-manuscript-map-by-Pauliny-1891-Right-Shadowed_fig3_299924411\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">examples<\/a> of illuminated contours that predate this, but they were rare and manually defined.<\/p>\n<p>Here is a step-by-step process for creating the visual effect of illuminated contours, using laminar contour polygons, in ArcGIS Pro.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"youtube","start_time":"0","end_time":"","youtube_video_url":"<iframe title=\"Tanaka Contours in ArcGIS Pro\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cZx-sRPyZ2w?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<p>0:00 Data wrangling and contour creation<\/p>\n<p>1:03 Invisibility cloak gray<\/p>\n<p>1:35 Hacking light and shadow bands<\/p>\n<p>2:17 Invisibility cloak activated<\/p>\n<p>And that is how you can turn contour elevation polygons into illuminated, or Tanaka, contours. Here are a couple examples of it atop various backgrounds.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":{"ID":2983831,"id":2983831,"title":"IlluminatedContoursImagery","filename":"IlluminatedContoursImagery.jpg","filesize":618025,"url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IlluminatedContoursImagery.jpg","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-pro\/mapping\/how-to-make-illuminated-tanaka-contours-in-arcgis-pro\/illuminatedcontoursimagery","alt":"Illuminated contours over imagery","author":"6971","description":"","caption":"","name":"illuminatedcontoursimagery","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":2983823,"date":"2026-10-01 19:09:49","modified":"2026-10-01 19:10:01","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1605,"height":954,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IlluminatedContoursImagery-213x200.jpg","thumbnail-width":213,"thumbnail-height":200,"medium":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IlluminatedContoursImagery.jpg","medium-width":439,"medium-height":261,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IlluminatedContoursImagery.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":456,"large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IlluminatedContoursImagery.jpg","large-width":1605,"large-height":954,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IlluminatedContoursImagery-1536x913.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":913,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IlluminatedContoursImagery.jpg","2048x2048-width":1605,"2048x2048-height":954,"card_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IlluminatedContoursImagery-782x465.jpg","card_image-width":782,"card_image-height":465,"wide_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IlluminatedContoursImagery.jpg","wide_image-width":1605,"wide_image-height":954}},"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IlluminatedContoursImagery.jpg"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":{"ID":2983832,"id":2983832,"title":"IlluminatedContoursHypsometric","filename":"IlluminatedContoursHypsometric.jpg","filesize":432778,"url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IlluminatedContoursHypsometric.jpg","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-pro\/mapping\/how-to-make-illuminated-tanaka-contours-in-arcgis-pro\/illuminatedcontourshypsometric","alt":"Illuminated contours over a hypsometrically tinted elevation","author":"6971","description":"","caption":"","name":"illuminatedcontourshypsometric","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":2983823,"date":"2026-10-01 19:13:58","modified":"2026-10-01 19:14:25","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1605,"height":954,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IlluminatedContoursHypsometric-213x200.jpg","thumbnail-width":213,"thumbnail-height":200,"medium":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IlluminatedContoursHypsometric.jpg","medium-width":439,"medium-height":261,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IlluminatedContoursHypsometric.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":456,"large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IlluminatedContoursHypsometric.jpg","large-width":1605,"large-height":954,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IlluminatedContoursHypsometric-1536x913.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":913,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IlluminatedContoursHypsometric.jpg","2048x2048-width":1605,"2048x2048-height":954,"card_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IlluminatedContoursHypsometric-782x465.jpg","card_image-width":782,"card_image-height":465,"wide_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IlluminatedContoursHypsometric.jpg","wide_image-width":1605,"wide_image-height":954}},"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IlluminatedContoursHypsometric.jpg"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<p>Thanks for watching, I hope you carve up some contour polygons and illuminate your map&#8217;s terrain!<\/p>\n<p>Love, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@JohnNelsonMaps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">John<\/a><\/p>\n"}],"authors":[{"ID":6971,"user_firstname":"John","user_lastname":"Nelson","nickname":"John Nelson","user_nicename":"j_nelson","display_name":"John Nelson","user_email":"John_Nelson@esri.com","user_url":"http:\/\/www.adventuresinmapping.com","user_registered":"2018-03-02 00:19:05","user_description":"I have far too much fun looking for ways to understand and present data visually, hopefully driving product strategy and engaging users. I work in the ArcGIS Living Atlas team at Esri, pushing and pulling data in all sorts of absurd ways and then sharing the process. I also design user experiences for maps and apps.\r\nWhen I'm not doing those things, I'm chasing around toddlers and wrangling chickens, and generally getting into other ad-hoc adventures. Life is good.\r\nYou might also like these Styles for ArcGIS Pro: esriurl.com\/nelsonstyles","user_avatar":"<img data-del=\"avatar\" src='https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Profile.jpg' class='avatar pp-user-avatar avatar-96 photo ' height='96' width='96'\/>"}],"related_articles":"","show_article_image":false,"card_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IlluminatedContoursCover.jpg","wide_image":false},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to make illuminated (Tanaka) contours in ArcGIS Pro<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-pro\/mapping\/how-to-make-illuminated-tanaka-contours-in-arcgis-pro\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" 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