A tutorial for producing these maps will be provided soon. With the help of InkScape and a spreadsheet, they are not quite as fiddly as you would expect. Each map consists of a single image, with all the roll-over images as a part of the main map image.
It uses a ‘sprite’ technique to move the roll-over background images into position when the mouse hovers over the [square] regions. Why do it like this? Firstly there is no JavaScript involved. Secondly it keeps the number of objects downloaded to a minimum – just one stylesheet (or set of styles) and one image. Lastly, it degrades nicely to a simple unordered list when CSS is not available or relevant.
Half Size
- North East
- North West
- Yorkshire & Humberside
- West Midlands
- East Midlands
- South West
- South East
- London
- East Of England
Full Size with Picture Roll-Overs
You are not limited to colours in the roll-over. You can add whatever images you like. If using PNGs (as we are here) you can even include alpha-transparency to overlay the main map with a semi-transparent roll-over image.
Since this demo uses PNGs, Internet Explorer 6 (and below) users may see grey-blue backgrounds around the images. You can work around this by using GIF images instead. However, I would encourage IE6 users to upgrade in the first instance.
- North East
- North West
- Yorkshire & Humberside
- West Midlands
- East Midlands
- South West
- South East
- London
- East Of England
Credits
The rest are my own snaps: Catbells, Drax Power Station, Angel of the North, a member of the Queen’s Guard and a Clapper Bridge in Cornwall.
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