Cartographic Elements

A professional map isn't just data; it's the metadata surrounding it. geoplot-themes provides out-of-the-box parameters to add all standard cartographic elements without writing a single line of layout code.

Main Title & Subtitle

Use title and subtitle to define the main headers. The styling and fonts are automatically handled by the active theme.

gpt.plot_map_r(
    raster_data="erosion.tif",
    title="Global Erosion Probability",
    subtitle="Model year 2026. Highlighting critical risk zones.",
)

The Footer (Caption)

Professional maps require citations. You can fill out the bottom-left caption using these four parameters:

gpt.plot_map_r(
    raster_data="erosion.tif",
    author="Perur Geospatial Solutions",
    date_str="October 2026",
    data_source="NASA Earth Observatory",
    crs_text="WGS 84 / UTM Zone 37N"
)

This will automatically format into a neat block:

Map Created By: Perur Geospatial Solutions
Date: October 2026
Data Source: NASA Earth Observatory
Coordinate System: WGS 84 / UTM Zone 37N

Scale Bar & North Arrow

The package uses ggspatial to draw highly accurate geographic scale bars and north arrows.

They are enabled by default, but you can toggle them:

gpt.plot_map_r(
    raster_data="erosion.tif",
    scale_bar=True,       # Draws a dynamic scale bar at the bottom right
    north_arrow=True,     # Draws a directional arrow above the scale bar
)

Note: The styling of the scale bar (light/dark) automatically adapts to your chosen theme!

Coordinate Grid (Graticules)

You can toggle the latitude/longitude grid lines and their axis labels using show_coords.

gpt.plot_map_r(
    raster_data="erosion.tif",
    show_coords=True  # Will draw the grid and the 0.04°N labels
)