ScapeToad is an easy to use Java application for cartogram creation. A cartogram is a transformed map where the polygons are proportional to the value of a given statistical variable, e.g. the population. More information is available on the project web site at scapetoad.choros.place or on the Github project site.
ScapeToad is an application which requires quite big computation resources. We have made quite an effort to make the cartogram making accessible. However, ScapeToad needs at least 512 MB of memory. If you want to produce high quality cartograms, it is preferable to have a fast processor. ScapeToad needs at least Java 1.4.
ScapeToad is an open-source project released under the GNU Public License. You can find the complete license in the separate LICENSE.txt file.
ScapeToad is a Java application and can be used on any computer with an installed Java Virtual Machine.
Unless you want to modify ScapeToad, there is no need for compilation. However, if you want to make changes, the compile process should be straightforward by using Ant. With Ant installed, simply cd to the src directory and run ant. Resulting JAR file will be in dist directory.
## Install and run ScapeToad
ScapeToad is a multi-platform Java programm. Download the file ScapeToad-vXX.tgz located in dist to your drive and decompress the file. On most platforms, you can probably just double-click on the JAR file.
It is also possible to run ScapeToad from your Terminal like this:
java -Xmx512m -jar /your/install/folder/ScapeToad.jar
You are welcome to make contributions to ScapeToad. Simply fork the repo and send your pull request.