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CartoType Ltd is a limited company, number 7021509, incorporated in England and Wales on 17th September 2009. It has the sole right to license and market the CartoType software system.
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By Graham Asher on 12 March 2010
Street maps generally work very well with no indication of height. Check out the well-known London A to Z maps, for example, although the lack of contours and hill shading can be annoying if you didn't expect Highgate Hill. But once you're out in the country, walking, cycling, or touring a hilly area by car, you really need some way to visualise the shape of the land. Contours are great, but can be hard to interpret in very folded mountainous terrain; the best system combines contours with either hill coloring (colors change as you get higher) or shading, using shadows cast by an imaginary sun, or both.
CartoType formerly supported hill shading, but we put that on one side, largely for reasons of speed. It's now time to re-examine this area, redesigning it where necessary, and adding support for contours and hill coloring. The schedule for this hasn't been decided yet, and the feature list is incomplete, so now is the time to contact us (e-mail enquires {at} cartotype {dot} com) if you have comments or requests.