From WWallace: How would I go about setting up the tapered rivers in ArcMap (or is it exclusively something to be done in say, Illustrator)? I’m a bit confused by how they work. Thanks again.
@WWallace: Please download the 1.1.1 update of Natural Earth here to get the fixed river tapers: https://www.naturalearthdata.com/blog/miscellaneous/version-1-1-release-notes/
The 1.0 release had the strokeWeight field set to text instead of number for TWO files: the “scaleRank” version and the dissolved rivers version. With the new version of scaleRank file you’ll be able to set a quantitative (numerical) legend based on that field. Do graduated line weights from symbolization range of .25 to 8 point weight. You should see very large rivers like the Amazon, Congo, and Mississippi have large outflows on the coast and the headwaters of all rivers shrink up.
Because the scaleRank file has many segments, it’s not good for labeling. Add the dissolved file (provided) and set it’s symbolization to no fill, no stroke, but label true using the name field. You can also do a selection querry so only rivers are labeled, not the parts of rivers in lakes (feature class = lake centerline).
I hope to push out the rivers and other updated files into the main branch (downloads on the site) soon. Please subscribe to the update email list to stay current with Natural Earth.
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