Natural Earth is a

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...

map A map is a symbolic depiction emphasizing relationships between elements of some space, such as objects, regions, or themes. Many maps are static, fixed to paper or some other durable medium, while others are dynamic or interactive. Although ...

dataset A data set (or dataset) is a collection of data. In the case of tabular data, a data set corresponds to one or more database tables, where every column of a table represents a particular variable, and each row corresponds to a given record of the ...

available at 1:10 million (1 cm = 100 km), 1:50 million, and 1:110 million

map scale The scale of a map is the ratio of a distance on the map to the corresponding distance on the ground. This simple concept is complicated by the curvature of the Earth's surface, which forces scale to vary across a map. Because of this variatio ...

s. Natural Earth's data set contains integrated vector and raster mapping data. The original authors of the map dataset are Tom Patterson and Nathaniel Vaughn Kelso, but Natural Earth has expanded to be a collaboration of many volunteers and is supported by the

North American Cartographic Information Society The North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS) is a US-based cartographic society founded in 1980. It was founded by specialists in cartography, which included government mapmakers, map librarians, cartography professors and cartogra ...

(NACIS).Natural Earth Contributors
It is free for public use in any type of project. The dataset includes the fictitious 1-meter-square

Null Island Null Island is the point on Earth's surface at zero degrees latitude and zero degrees longitude (), i.e., where the prime meridian and the Equator intersect. Null Island is located in international waters in the Atlantic Ocean, roughly 600 km of ...

at for error-checking purposes.

Public domain data and software

All versions of Natural Earth

raster Raster may refer to: * Raster graphics, graphical techniques using arrays of pixel values * Raster graphics editor, a computer program * Raster scan, the pattern of image readout, transmission, storage, and reconstruction in television and compu ...

and

vector Vector most often refers to: *Euclidean vector, a quantity with a magnitude and a direction *Vector (epidemiology), an agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism Vector may also refer to: Mathematic ...

map data on the Natural Earth website are in the public domain. Anyone may use the maps in any manner, including modifying the content and design.

References

External links

Natural Earth project official website

Shaded Relief
Ideas and techniques about relief presentation in maps, by Tom Patterson. {{cartography-stub Cartography Public domain databases

Public domain data and software

See also

References

External links