How Do I Make Close Up Maps From An Area Map

[Langy]

One way to go about it is to go the other way around - make the detailed maps first, then the overview map (your last suggestion). Unfortunately, I know of no easy way to expand a map and keep that level of detail, unless it's a vector map, in which case it's trivial (vectors being resolution-independent).

[razcor]

If I understand the problem, what I would do, using photshop is:

- select the shape of, for example, the island you wish to enlarge;



- select it and copy it to a new layer;

- use free transform (CTRL - T), say to 500% on both axis, this enlarge your isle;



- select the shape, fill in white, select inverse fill in black



- create a new layer, filter -> clouds -> render clouds (make sure foreground color is black and background is white hitting D);

- create new fill layer - threshold, adjust until you have something like this (on the cloud filtered layer adjust the opacity too see the shape of the island);



- on the cloud filtered layer paint in black or white whith a soft, low opacity;



- on the cloud filtered layer copy merged and then paste on another layer (or another file)


hope that answers your question...

[Hai-Etlik]

One way to go about it is to go the other way around - make the detailed maps first, then the overview map (your last suggestion). Unfortunately, I know of no easy way to expand a map and keep that level of detail, unless it's a vector map, in which case it's trivial (vectors being resolution-independent).

Vector graphics can't make detail appear by magic. A zoomed in vector map isn't going to display any detail that wasn't in the original. It's just that it won't have any aliasing from resampling as you would when scaling a raster image. Inkscape does have a handy tool called "fractalize" that can add some fractal noise to a path though.