Definition of Scale Rank & appropriate attribute for size-based styling

[jeffme]

Is there a link to a formal definition of Scale Rank?

(I’m guessing it doesn’t really have to do with the “Scale” or size of a country?)

 

What I’m trying to do:

– Some physically-sized based styling

– Trying to mimic what Google Maps does for shading / bordering of countries

— go to maps.google.com and search for Sweden, set zoom to 0 – see the red fill highlight

— set zoom to 2 – see the red border highlight replace the fill highlight

— do the same for Ghana

— see that the fill isn’t replaced by the border until zoom=4

 

Am I missing an attribute that could be used for this?

 

Thanks!

Jeff

 

[Nathaniel]

They largely follow the Google zooms you are describing, with one notable exception:

Natural Earth scale rank 4 is roughly 1:50,000,000 scale (NEW, only in Natural Earth). And then it picks back up normally with scale rank 5 is 1:36,000,000, etc.

http://kelsocartography.com/blog/?p=2407

Nothing is perfect, but this mostly works between all themes.

This is because while the 2^x power schema is useful, it doesn’t hold up well at that one particular scale, a typical scale used in much small and medium scale maps.

[Author]

Posts