This new atlas is created from a unique digital database, and its computer-generated maps represent a new phase in map-making technology. To build a digital database capable of generating this world atlas, the latitude and longitude of every significant town, river, coastline, natural and political border, transportation network and peak elevation was researched and digitized. Hundreds of millions of data points describing every important geographi feature are organized into thousands of different map feature codes. - p. ii.