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Two line networks on the same map, one measuring metres on a flat surface and one degrees on a curved one.
A projected grid such as UTM measures eastings and northings in metres, so distances can be computed by subtraction — within a zone. A graticule marks latitude and longitude in degrees on a curved surface and generally curves on the page; a graticule drawn as a straight square grid tells you the projection was chosen to make it so. A map may carry both, and giving a reference from one while naming the other puts a position in the wrong place entirely.
A projected grid measures metres on a flat surface; a graticule measures degrees on a curved one, and a map may carry both.
Drawn from the visual attributes recorded for each symbol. Only traits the two records disagree about are listed.
| Trait | UTM grid reference | Graticule |
|---|---|---|
| Built from | number like and letter like | lines and dots |
| UTM grid reference | Graticule | |
|---|---|---|
| Units | Metres. | Degrees, minutes and seconds. |
| Shape on the page | Straight by construction. | Curved on most projections. |
| Distance by subtraction | Works within a zone. | Does not work. |
| Relationship (from Symbolwise's records) | Commonly confused with Graticule — A projected grid measures metres on a flat surface; a graticule measures degrees on a curved one, and a map may carry both. | Commonly confused with UTM grid reference — A graticule measures degrees on a curved surface; a projected grid measures metres on a flat one, and a map may carry both. |
National mapping agencies of Europe and their conventional signs
BKG Germany, swisstopo, IGN France and the Nordic mapping authorities · retrieved 2026-08-27
The national mapping bodies, cited for the conventional signs on their own topographic series. Symbol sets differ between agencies and scales, and a record names the agency it describes.
A building's assembly point is a safe place to stand once you are outside. A ship's muster station is a staffed step in a procedure: you are counted against a roll, briefed, and if necessary allocated to a survival craft, which is why it has a letter or a number and appears on your cabin door card. Both are green, both show grouped figures, and both are called an assembly point in ordinary speech — and treating a muster station as somewhere merely to wait is the misunderstanding drills exist to correct.
Follow the teeth. They always point downhill. Teeth running outward and away from the crest line mean the ground was built up — an embankment carrying a road or railway above the surrounding land. Teeth running inward, towards the line, mean the ground was cut away — a cutting taking the route below it. The two marks are deliberate mirror images of each other, which makes them easy to tell apart once you know the rule and almost impossible to guess if you do not, because both read as a line with hatching. This is one of the few map conventions where knowing a single rule settles the question permanently.
Land cover on a Japanese map is drawn as one small motif repeated across an area rather than as a single symbol, and the categories come in pairs that differ by exactly one feature. Paddy against dry field is two small strokes drawn two ways. Broadleaf against needleleaf is a rounded canopy against a pointed one on the same trunk. Timber bamboo against dwarf sasa is woodland against ground cover. In every case the pair covers the whole of a category between them, so identifying one is really a matter of deciding which half of a pair you are looking at — which is why these six are worth reading together rather than one at a time.
A circle drawn around a Japanese map symbol raises its rank. The same 文 character is a primary or lower secondary school on its own and a high school inside a circle; the same crossed truncheons are a neighbourhood police box on their own and a full police station inside a circle. Once you know that, three separate identification problems collapse into one rule, and the reason the marks look so alike stops being a defect of the map and becomes the point of it. The circles around the public-administration marks work slightly differently and are the exception worth knowing: there the distinction is not plain-versus-circled but what sits inside the circle, and those three are genuinely easy to confuse at map scale.