A previous post had a snip of a survey plat. The plat had colored lines, colored text. Is that a common practice in other parts of the country? It does make certain items stand out, but the problem I see is: what if the plat is printed in black and white? The colored items are not highlighted anymore. What seemed like a clear depiction is now a mess of lines.
I'm curious, is this now a common practice? If you do it yourself, do you worry about what will get lost if it is scanned or printed in black and white?
I'm used to using different line weights and linetypes to depict easement/setback/property/utility/contour lines.
Just curious, not passing judgement.
I have used color but extremely rarely. Some others feel that everything needs to be in color. As you mentioned, not everyone has easy access to color copiers.
But if you do, you can put as much info on a colour A3 sheet as on a mono A1 and still have it understandable.
The old NZ survey plans used to be in colour - hand drawn water colour - they were true works of art
for legal size plats, I use a colored vicinity map. I have also used blue for flood lines (which are also textually labeled). Sometimes also if there are confusing elements like overlapping easement lines and setback lines for example.
My preference is to use different line weights to emphasize importance. I will use colored hatching to differentiate between a newly created permanent easement and a temporary easement. I will also use a bold burnt-red color to highlight overlaps and encroachments, but those are also a heavier line weight when non-color printing or copying is used.
Personally, I use black lines with different weights of line thickness to highlite the subject of my survey.
Our Register-Of-Deeds has a black/white scanner for all recorded plats. The "colored" lines do not scan well and she is considering requiring plats to be blk/wht only.
The County Surveyors and Recorders here require all recorded maps and documents to be all black on white. No color, no graytones, no hatching. But I use color to accentuate some of my other maps and sketches.
I'm not concerned about people having color printers, I assume everyone has a color screen by now, and 99% of the viewing will be done there.
Depends on the product. Official product to be recorded or something like ALTA or boundary survey, I use black, different line types and weights, one font and vary size, italics,bold. Some shading in various patterns, but all black
I think color can get put of hand and confuse the message the product is trying to convey.
That being said, some products are much clearer in color
All of my ALTA surveys go out as pdfs in color and in black & white. The color is much easier to interpret on a screen but the black & white plots sharper.
Typical convention is black and white. I got into this debate with my CEO when I founded my department. He wanted all of our plans to be in color and thought using color would make our firm stand out from the rest in the area.
I opposed the idea of using color for reasons that I had learned when tinkering with the idea when I ran my own business. Color inks and toners fade much faster than black and, when doing a high volume of work, the colored inks and toners are far more expensive than basic black.
As somebody stated in another comment, any document to be filed must be in black and white format for cost effective reproduction purposes. I lost the battle with my CEO on the topic, and we tried it for a few months when I won the war after he saw the cost of supplies skyrocket. We now use color for renderings and presentations only.
It does make certain items stand out, but the problem I see is: what if the plat is printed in black and white? The colored items are not highlighted anymore. What seemed like a clear depiction is now a mess of lines
Dunno, I have seen lots of surveys produced in black and white that were still a mess of lines...
Color maps can be invaluable when we need to highlight or emphasize certain things.
The number one reason that we tend to think everything has to be black & white is that recorders' offices and/or statutes require filings to be in black & white.
I produce color plots when it makes sense. I'd probably do a lot more of them if I were a solo operator.
And then there are the numerous old deeds I have seen that refer to the areas shown in green, or red, and that were perfectly clear at the time but then recorded as a black and white instrument.
The number one reason that we tend to think everything has to be black & white is that recorders' offices and/or statutes require filings to be in black & white
And Woe Unto You if you sign with blue ink!
And that is unlikely to change for now, at least in WA. They are scanned, and color scans require a lot more bits than black and white scans, from what I can tell.
