Specifics of preparing the introductory map from the Atlas of Antarctica for printing

Summary

The article describes the design and prepress production of “Antarctica on the Map of the Southern Hemisphere,” the opening map in the Atlas of Antarctica. An oblique azimuthal projection developed by TsNIIGAiK was used to convey the Earth’s curvature, continental relief, and Antarctic sea ice in a three-dimensional color image. Colored hill shading depicts land and ice relief, while distinct symbols show perennial and seasonal sea ice, fractures, leads, and ice-drift paths. To avoid the difficulty of manually rendering uniform spherical shading, the author devised a photographic method: a papier-mâché hemisphere was photographed under lateral illumination at about 60° to produce a halftone original. This was combined with the relief-wash original, screened transparencies, hypsometric tints, and duplex printing. The map employed four line colors and ten background colors. The author judges the printed result fairly successful but recommends a stronger blue in the illuminated ocean areas and adjustments to the saturation and brightness of the land tints to improve land–sea contrast. Such maps are also proposed as visual aids for elementary geography teaching.