Abstract: Nowadays the rise of Desk Top Publishing system and electronic map is an important representation of modern cartography technology.The electronic environment provides cartographers with powerful tools,such as color adjustment,graph layer intergration,sheet layout,dynamic symbol generlization and statistic chart automation.The paper illustrates the DTP mapping system component and its characteristics,also discusses the change in map design compared with traditional manual design techniques.In the latter,the paper investigates the properties of new kind of map——electronic map or atlas,which involves dynamic,interaction and hypermedia structure.Some special principles for electronic map design are presented in the end of paper:extending visual variable of map symbol,multiple sheet single tack map replacing single sheet multiple task map and leading map users participating in map design during the process of implementing map.