Remarks on the classification of quantitative cartographic methods of presentation

Po omówieniu wybranych właściwości form prezentacji kartograficznej, w artykule przedstawiono propozycję modyfikacji klasyfikacji L. Ratajskiego, podanej w podręczniku z 1989 roku.Despite a number of theoretical dissertations there is still no generally accepted classification of cartographic methods of presentation. The classification proposed by L. Ratajski (1989) is used in Poland. Being developed in the early 1960s, it is almost 50 years old. The classification bases on the type of presented information. Methods are divided into quantitative (diagram map, choropleth map, isolines, dot method) and qualitative (areal method, pictoral method). This division is insufficient, because in measurement theory there also exists the ordinal level. Every quantitative method should therefore include presentation on ordinal level. I believe that a method known in Polish literature as signature method (e.g. city size in general geographical maps) should be moved to the quantitative group. All quantitative methods convey information using class division, so statistic data are transformed into classes. Diagram map is an exception - it can be used in continuous form (with size variable) as well as in its class division version. This aspect asks for more research from the point of cartoaraphic methods of presentation