Spatially Efficient Design of Annotated Metro Maps

Schematic representation of metro maps significantly improves the visual readability of the map contents due to its clear and simplified layout design, especially for guiding complicated metro networks. Currently available metro maps usually follow the aesthetic criteria invented by Beck, where the metro lines are aligned to horizontal and vertical directions and optionally 45 degree diagonal directions. In addition, annotating the map with comprehensive explanations and photographs effectively allows us to find sufficient information on our own places of interest. Actually, this type of schematic representation with such large annotation labels has been widely employed in commercially available metro maps and travel guidebooks. In this project, we present a new approach for designing the annotated metro maps in order to distribute such labels in a well-balanced manner to labeling regions around the metro network. Then, we adjust the lengths of metro line and leader line segments, which allows us to fully maximize the space coverage of the entire annotated map.