Saule, thanks for your comments and ideas! Indeed I'm already trying to do what you suggested regarding forest colors. You know, actually the colors were NOT painted with a large soft brush (I know, they look just like that), but created with a different process. Basically I have all my map icons (forests, hills, mountains, marshes, etc.) stored in different layers, in B&W (just black actually, no colors anyway). To create the colors I do the following:

- I select (for example) the forest icons layer, all of it (Ctrl+A).
- I nudge the selection a pixel in any direction and then nudge it back in place... this way only the actual content of the layer remains selected (only the trees, with no blurring at all). Probably there's a better way to do this but I didn't find one... ;-)
- I feather the selection (12 px).
- I fill the resulting selection with forest color... but in a different layer (not the one with the trees icons). This color layer is set to multiply and about 50% opacity.

Once I do this for hills, mountains, farmland and marshes, the result is what you see in the map.

I just redid the whole process, but feathering less (or not feathering at all) and I am getting exactly the result you suggested. It was a matter of about 20 seconds... fortunately I don't have to paint all the map! That would take days.

I am also doing some other tweaks and will post a new version shortly, with less blur around the forests. Ireland is getting some justice, too.

I'm also trying some less modern fonts... I got used to this one so it's not easy to find something I like, but I'll keep experimenting!

Thanks again,

L.