Ordnance Survey – Great Britain's national mapping agency
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1.1: In the beginning . . . there were maps (3)
Map information
How is map information translated into digital form and read by a computer? The GIS must be able to store information about:
- The geometry: the shape and location of the objects
- The attributes: the descriptive information known about the objects, normally displayed on a map through symbology and annotation.
There are two fundamental methods of storing this map information in digital form: raster and vector. These are covered in the next section: Introducing raster and vector.
< 1.1: In the beginning . . . there were maps (2) | 1.2: Introducing raster and vector (1) >