I was reading an old cartography book and found a weird fact about compass roses

It was a library book from 1973, and it said that on some old sea charts, the compass rose points were colored red for the eight main winds. I never knew there was a standard color code for that on fantasy maps. Does anyone actually use that rule in their own work?

3 comments

3 Comments

ninab951mo ago

That's the kind of old rule I love finding. It makes you notice how much hidden structure is in things we take for granted now.

skylerg171mo ago

Totally agree. Makes you look at everything different.

simon_wood7225d ago

Actually, I'm going to push back on this a bit. That red for main winds thing was a printing issue more than a standard rule. Old maps were hand-colored by the cartographer's assistants, and red ink was cheaper and easier to get than blue or green back then. It wasn't some secret code, it was just what they had on hand. I've seen plenty of old sea charts where the compass rose colors are all over the place depending on who made it and when. If you try to apply that as a hard rule for fantasy maps today, you're basically copying a budget choice from centuries ago and calling it tradition.