It needs to be scaled down to fit on a page or a screen. Map scales can be written in two ways, a simple scale with units or a ratio scale. A map scale is given as 1 cm = 2 km. This means that ...

Map scales close map scaleThe ratio of the length of a feature on a map to the same length in real life. are often written as a ratio, eg 1 : 250,000. They can also be written using measurements ...