Inkscape strategies: coastline, outlines, and borders

[Wordman]

For example, I've got a good sense of how things are in the subarctic-to-subtropical of the eastern sections of one of my continents, but things get hazy in the west, and norther/southern extremes. I'd like to get on with mapping the bit I know, but then find myself unsure of what to do with my loose coastline ends

The beauty of vector lines is that you can just snip and join them when you want. If you have a section of perfect coastline, but are hazy on what happens when it runs out, then just make the picture hazy. That is, connect one end point to a long line that goes off the screen, then continue that line around (outside your usual view) until you can connect it back to the other endpoint of the coastline. This has two basic advantages: 1) it closes the loop so you can apply fills. 2) it actually looks un-finshed, so you know it isn't done yet. Later, when you are ready to fill in the blanks, you can just snip the line and go to town.

Also, rivers depend on the map. At large scales, they work better as a separate layer. At shorter scales, you might be better off treating rivers like any other other coastline. For example, if your map is the sort where you could conceivably draw a ship sailing up the river, to scale, coastlines may work better.

[carlaz]

The beauty of vector lines is that you can just snip and join them when you want. If you have a section of perfect coastline, but are hazy on what happens when it runs out, then just make the picture hazy. That is, connect one end point to a long line that goes off the screen, then continue that line around (outside your usual view) until you can connect it back to the other endpoint of the coastline.

Ah! I think I understand what you mean ....
I'm looking at a new Inkscape document here -- so consisting simply of a blank "page". If I understand your description aright, I could draw as much coastline as I was sure about within the bounds of that page, then loop it around [i]outside[i/] the bounds of the "page".

This has two basic advantages: 1) it closes the loop so you can apply fills. 2) it actually looks un-finshed, so you know it isn't done yet. Later, when you are ready to fill in the blanks, you can just snip the line and go to town.

Mmm, yes, and I suppose using the "outside loop" technique, even if my "page" is filled, when I decide that I am ready to draw the section that are currently "off the map", I could just select everything and scale it down uniformly. Then I could reposition on the "page" as appropriate and carry on detailing my new sections up to the edge of the "page", leaving further "outside loops" as necessary.

Working like this, I could n extend the scope and detail of the map section-by-section, leaving outside loops to cover remaining unknown bits ....

Good stuff! (if I've understood aright! ) Thanks for that

Also, rivers depend on the map. At large scales, they work better as a separate layer. At shorter scales, you might be better off treating rivers like any other other coastline. For example, if your map is the sort where you could conceivably draw a ship sailing up the river, to scale, coastlines may work better.

I'm not sure I'm ready to illustrate ships and crocodiles splashing around in my rivers yet so perhaps I'll start with separate layers for these kinds of features ....