This 1884 relief map of America is being sold at the New Hampshire antique store Mill Goods. Not only is it a unique shape, it’s quite large too: 4′ high by 6′ 4″ at its widest point.* The cartographer is Edwin E. Howell, a USGS Geologist who made many—at least 56—relief maps, though this is the only one I can find in this odd shape. It’s made of painted plaster and surrounded with a wood frame.
I’m sort of wishing I could be pouring plaster right now, instead of mocking up a webmap in Balsamiq. Maybe my webmap client would enjoy a plaster mockup instead?!
On a non-related note, if anyone has advice regarding the use of Google Web Fonts in IE 7 and 8, could you let me know? I’ve heard they are rendering incorrectly but am unsure if that’s just for bold and/or italic variants.
*That’s got to be heavy.
#1 by Keith on September 12, 2012 - 8:28 pm
In regards to your web fonts question, the Google Web Fonts API does support IE6+ (https://developers.google.com/webfonts/faq#Browsers_Supported). However, there are problems in IE7 & 8 where faux bold and italic fonts are used instead…at least when using the default implementations. Smashing Magazine has a great article on how to get around this – Avoiding Faux Weights and Styles With Google Web Fonts (http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2012/07/11/avoiding-faux-weights-styles-google-web-fonts/).
Cheers,
Keith
#2 by Gretchen on September 13, 2012 - 5:19 am
@Keith Thanks. Great info!