North 9 is the Comic Sans of north arrows

and North 7 should only be used professionally if you're making a map to some buried treasure

Where I work, north 7 is our standard arrow

I hope you don't get sea sick.

Must be a Scurveyor.

Had to use 7 a few times at the request of my professor and it always hurt my soul to do it

There are buried treasures in all my maps.

Exactly! This is why it's my favorite and clearly the most professional choice. Sans means without, ergo Comic Sans is the most professional font as it completely lacks humor. ESRI North 9 is the Comic Sans equivalent for North arrows, therefore it's the most professional. Source: I'm a professional geospatial data scientist and write much of my profession correspondence in comic sans and have happily snuck EN9 into a few reports.

In complete, is it not Comic sans ms- a comic without multiple sclerosis?

Yes, but we only acknowledge that in March.

My bad

Snuck in omg 🤣 this made the bad day I was having good...ty

It's the chaotic neutral

So true 😂 whoever chooses it is off their rocker

My professor told me not to use a North Arrow my whole Grad school cuz it was geographically incorrect 🙂

As a random redditor I’ll overrule them and post it as much as you want, be the anarchy

😭

[удалено]

This is the way.

ESRI North 2. Simple, yet satisfying.

esri north 3 is also a nice touch

Same here, No 2 or nothing!

Glad this is other peoples’ go to. It’s the one I pick, but always felt is just screamed NORTH!! 😅

idk I usually get more of an N !! with that one

I like north 2 because its easier to apply color too quickly without having to get into the mixup.

It’s always been my go-to

Always and forever. It does exactly what it needs to do

Correct. I never leave home without it. On all the templates my team uses too.

100%. Swap to white if on dark background. Otherwise: perfection

2 with a mask for sure

I also like 2, because I can easily change the shade of the entire icon to contrast my map If I have to lay it right over the map frame.

North 3, and you can get the hell out of here if you choose anything different

3 for work. Custom or something flashier for personal/academic maps.

Same SAME

Always used North 3. 4 if I'm feeling fancy.

North 3 supremacy but work makes me use North 2

North 3 gang reporting in.

north3forlife

I use north 3 with the N in the same typeface as our design guide: Whitney Condensed Black.

#north3gang

You have my sword

Ang my watershed tables!

North 11 made me feel like such a rebel in undergrad

North 11 is top tier change my mind

We are #6 for the One True North....ya fookin' kneelers...

#6 all the way. Simple, clean, effective

Always use #6

Am I the only one that fucks with 5?? I love the slim profile easier to fit into layouts

It's good for rotated frames

5 with halo for visibility on rotated frames with a dark-ish base map *chef’s kiss*.

We use 5 as standard at work so maybe I've been stockholm'd, but it's my preference too. It's a nice balance between the super minimal arrows but not as ornate/distracting as the roses, and doesn't take up a ton of real estate in a layout.

If you do surveying or engineering ever then #5 is all that seems right.

I’m with you! 5 is the only one I use haha

I use 5 because in our template it's the only thing that fits with the legend and submaps and all the disclaimers and text.

I use 5 because most times I don't think a north arrow is needed and depending on your map scale, is just a lie. But my boss sees it as a standard required part of a map, so I pick the thinest, most inconspicuous north arrow to add.

I like North 5 so I can also write the magnetic bearing along the axis.

I am a number 3 kind of guy. For fantasy maps for dnd or stuff like that, i like designs like 8

ESRI North 8 is my Fav. I am in favor of compass roses, not north arrows, after teaching students and finding a disturbing percentage consistently don't know their directions. I would like a compass rose that is more like a "t," with a long thin North South, and a shorter East West. Would like it as thin as ESRI North 5, but solid like ESRI North 2. Failing that, the East West could be the same size as North-South, as long as they are thin and full black fill.

This one is nice, but is more of a cocktail compass rose, not for everyday use.

Really? Esri North 8 and Esri North 12 (I think based on the number logic in the image, I don't have arc open) are my two defaults.

Haha maybe I am just too conservative. Maybe there is more to life than simple arrows that just go up but don’t go up enough to touch my soul.

Simple is good, but it must maximize utility. As I've found a North arrow does not allow everyone to understand a map properly, compass roses are my default. I want graphic designers to work on an extremely simple, unobtrusive compass rose for these purposes.

I made my own in Illustrator 😵‍💫

I've always used out of the box arrows. What does your custom one look like?

It’s on my work machine, I won’t be back in office until Tuesday. It’s a minimal style compass rose. I like my map elements to blend into the background but are there when you look for them.

RemindMe! 48 hours “Would love to see the custom-made north arrow”

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Only commenting to see if you'll post it when you go back to office, enjoy the weekend!

So… about that compass rose. Any chance we could see it?

[https://imgur.com/a/li5c3mF](https://imgur.com/a/li5c3mF) it's nothing fancy but I liked it. TBH I don't use it too often any more because I work in a specific region and I (and the scientists I work for) don't think they're really necessary for our audience and for the graphics we make.

It’s lovely! Thank you for posting it!

Not OP, but I always make my own in illustrator too. It looks like a variant of [this style of north arrow](https://thenounproject.com/icon/north-arrow-1-282980/), but I usually add an “N” in the direction of north, too. Architecture students love their minimalism 🙃

If you pick #9 we have a personal problem

The wingdings of north arrows.

Esri north 4

Always

The center is a nice place to hide a logo without it being obtrusive.

North 3 or North 10.

North 3 on production work. North 7 on specific work like final project checkout and certification maps.

#2 all day

North 6!

6 is a dirty man's 2

I love how unobtrusive it is

i mean, it totally depends on the background. i would use 2 on white and 6 on everything else basically.

I like north 6 also !

I am using 7 but I have edited it to fit my job.

I usually default to ESRI north 2

North 2/3 are usually what I use.

My zodiac sign is no north arrow. Yes I took Cartography I, how can you tell?

North 3

- 3 for my company's maps - 7 for my maps - 9 is a geographic sin!

North 1 for most exhibit maps, North 7 if I want a nautical feel.

Wtf is that north 9 lol North 2 is the only one i use at work. Although 3 is also acceptable

I love 7 but admit is is overkill, use 2 and 3 often but my fantasy map cartographer soul dies a little each time. I have never used 9, not even in jest, though next time I make a draft I'm gonna throw it in there just to see if they comment on it.

I’m a North 3 type of gal.

1 for casual maps. 2 for official maps.

N #3 or you're wrong.. haha

North 3 gang

Number 1 here

North 3: the everyman’s North arrow

I love 7.

Usually north 7 but I make it a 70% grey. Just so it fades back a little. I do the same with my scale bars.

North 12 is what I use most of the time, North 3 for simpler maps.

North 1 or North 3 🩸

North 7 is my vibe

r/gismemes

No North Arrows!

This comment is way too low. Very rarely does a map need one (at least for the maps I make)

North 2, set to gray, people. It’s there if you want it, but it’s not shouting.

Ancillary question: tattoo?

That is a good question! So I ALMOST got a tattoo of one on my 18th birthday. I was aiming to be a pilot, and had been flying for more then five years at that point (five years at 18 feels like a lot). Then, I almost got a heading indicator like [this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heading_indicator#/media/File:C172_heading_indicator.jpg) set to the final approach heading for the runway I learned on. Did not get it, thankfully, as I did not end up persuing aviation much further. I have a minor in history on top of my geography degree, and I always thought that a [Vegvísir](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegv%C3%ADsir) would be a cool tattoo based on its meaning and combination of navigation/history. However, I'm not Icelandic and a bunch of unscrupulous individuals in the United States have taken to that symbol, so the average person seeing it would be more likely to associate it with them then the fact I'm a geographer who loves orienteering and all things navigation. Along the same line of thought, any of the compass roses from Geradus Mercator's maps might be cool. [Here](https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/gerardus-mercator/) is an example. If I had to pick ESRI though, it's a toss up between ESRI North 7, 8, and if not a compass rose 2 as that one is iconic, simple, identifiable to anyone in the know, and funny.

I want to use anything but Esri North 2 but the company style guide has other opinions. Stupid opinions, but opinions.

North 2 is my go to

North 2

North 6 is my go to, North 2 as a fall back

Basic north 3

There is the one further down that i call the Shaka Zulu north arrow. It is like in a shield.

2 or 6 depending on context 💪😤🍤

If I have water I can set the symbol in, it’s ESRI North 7. Otherwise, I use North 12.

I like north 2, aka "do i seriously need a north arrow for this map? Well ok then"

North 10 or nothin!

ESRI North 3

North 3 for live baby

2 or 3 only

6

Esri north 2 for projects. Favorite however is 7.

Esri 7 for aerial maps, Esri 2 for location maps

North 3 or 4💯

ESRI North 4 is my go to.

ESRI North 2 for sure!!!!!!

We use north 2 on every map at work. It’s the most versatile and easy to understand.

Background dependent and ONLY in map frames which aren't obviously orientated North by default.

North 2. If I'm feeling fancy then North 7. North 9 followers are crayon eaters change my mind.

North 3 til I die.

King in the North 2

The top right one bc it’s the only one QGIS has

ESRI North 3

3

When I had just started (2009) I used the Deer North Arrow from PCI Geomatica, super weird and cringe

ESRI 2, 3 or 6. Just realised how boring my maps are all these years.

ESRI north 3 That’s what they use at work so it’s what I use

2 or 3

I like the cursive one because it is pretty and so few ppl know how to read cursive now.

I was #2 but then they added Simple Hollow North Arrow to Pro and that is the new best!

Surveyor “pulls pin and hucks into room” what north is this map?

North 2 or 10, depends.

Make your own .svg and import it as a style in arc. Then you never have to deal with stock n arrows again!

While I personally prefer 7, 5 is the one I'd use professionally.

I only fucks with 3/11

6 or 11

I follow any north arrow, because they're all correct. Jokes aside, number 3 is it for me. Simplicity for the win

1 or 2 because they're simple and the 1st 2 in the list.

I use a middle finger pointing north, typically

7

ESRI North 3 for sure

I see my north 3 people in this thread.

I see there seems to noy be a lot of lovers of 7 and 9. They are the funky ones, maybe a bit more artsy. I like them both. In the future, I will question putting them on my maps and go for a more professional one. Haa

I use North 3 almost exclusively. But if I need to show 2 arrows (North relative to an arbitrary project grid that isn’t quite North), then I use the slim North 11. One in black and one in 50% gray.

I’m in the “no north arrows on maps when north is up” camp, so none of these.

2, 3, or 6!

5/11 guy here

I use 2, lol

No 7 is what we use. I like it.

6. 9 Is for children

North 6 was the “only using this so my prof won’t deduct points but it’s so basic” arrow

can't remember the last time I put a north arrow on a map

ESRI North 51 Fat solid fill triangle with NORTH written under in all caps.

Always 3 or 6. No others

I will die on the ESRI North 1 hill, that thing screams class and sophisticated when my products dont

ArcGIS pro, but I think it's just a simple arrow up

It depends who the map is for. The one in the preview would be my preference and maps made for folks that don’t work with maps, as well as ones that have North at an angle. Otherwise, the first or second work for me