Illustrator data-driven maps?

Question

I have searched high and low for a way to colorize parts of a map based on a csv or xml file. For instance to illustrate results of a election. Doing it by hand is both tediousI imagine being able to attach a path to an variable and being able to change the background-image or the swatch based on a numeric value.Has any one got a idea on how to approach this?

Answer 1

It's not a straight forward process, however I can maybe help point you in the right direction.

GIS applications tend to use Shape files to do this type of thing. You might be able to fake it with some work using an exported SVG from illustrator, but that doesn't solve you associating it with a coordinate system.

http://www.avenza.com/mapublisher/

This company makes a paid plugin to assist you in creating maps in illustrator.

It's not a well documented thing. I will post some resources though to help you get going in the right direction.

1. http://www.cartotalk.com/index.php?showtopic=5436
2. http://maperitive.net/
3. http://braincrunch.tumblr.com/post/9947074703/maperitive-tutorial-generating-osm-map-for-adobe
4. https://community.esri.com/thread/9900
5. https://mapshaper.org/

Hope these help!