Inkscape: realistic hand-drawn effect (or gimp)

[Jaxilon]

Coyotemax has a great quote in his sig:

"...sometimes the most efficient way to make something look drawn by hand is to simply draw it by hand..."

That said I know we've had this conversation a few times. I'm thinking it's been a year or so since the last but don't quote me on that.

I use Gimp and Inkscape (Gimp mostly) and since I only have a mouse to work with I typically draw things I want drawn by hand on paper and scan them in. I did use a digital camera when I first started out but the scanner seems to do a better job. There are some effects you can use in Gimp to get rougher lines and stuff. For example the tutorial on creating realistic coastlines goes into making a non perfectly smooth line using filters. I think it unlikely that it would work for what you are trying to do but you might learn a few tricks about roughing up the lines.

I have done some drawing with my mouse but that's like drawing with a rock which is pretty brutal.

To be honest I think if the software was capable of making your image look authentically hand drawn you wouldn't see so many perfectly drawn maps all the time. Most folks hereabouts love the real thing. There's just something more organic about it.

One thing I have been playing around with recently is the 'Path-trace bitmap' function in Inkscape. You might be satisfied with something like that.