A newsletter to understand modern cartography
Maps are everywhere. In our smartphones, our cars, the media, public policy, and everyday digital products. They feel obvious, neutral, purely technical. And yet, they never really are.
That observation is the starting point of Cartography for Noobs.
This newsletter aims to explain modern cartography clearly, without unnecessary jargon, while refusing oversimplification. It looks behind maps, basemaps, navigation tools, and geographic visualizations to reveal the choices, constraints, and consequences hidden beneath the surface.
What the newsletter covers
Cartography for Noobs follows a deliberately progressive and educational structure. It is designed both for curious readers and for professionals working with maps, data, or digital products.
Topics explored include:
- Map projections and why every world map necessarily distorts reality
- Coordinate systems and the subtle errors that cause data to appear in the wrong place
- Geospatial data: where it comes from, how it is structured, and why quality matters
- Cartographic generalization, the often invisible art of simplifying without lying
- Modern web mapping, from tiles and performance to technological trade-offs
- Data licenses, a legal topic that is routinely underestimated
- Geopolitics and maps, where borders, names, and representations become political acts
Each article is grounded in concrete examples, often drawn from real-world projects: misleading basemaps, technical decisions with political implications, or legal constraints discovered too late.
An independent and critical perspective
This newsletter does not promote a specific tool, platform, or vendor. Instead, it takes the time to examine dominant standards and practices: why certain projections dominate the web, how major mapping platforms have shaped conventions, and how alternatives have emerged.
Cartography is treated for what it truly is:
a way of representing the world, shaped by choices, compromises, and sometimes ideology.
Maps do not merely describe reality. They interpret it.
Who this newsletter is for
- Digital professionals who work with maps without always understanding their implications
- Developers, data analysts, designers, and product builders dealing with geospatial data
- Students and educators looking for a clear and structured perspective
- Anyone curious about how the world is turned into maps
No technical prerequisites are required. But the reader is never treated as passive or naïve. The newsletter assumes intellectual curiosity and a desire to understand what lies behind apparently simple representations.
Why subscribe
Subscribing to Cartography for Noobs is not about learning how to make maps.
It is about learning how to read them, question them, and use them responsibly.
At a time when maps shape how we move, govern, and perceive the world, this understanding is no longer optional. It is essential.