Level lines map

[Megahercio]

I wasn't saying you should do anything different, I was just explaining what to call what you were doing rather than "level lines".

Yes, but as a separate chapter,I was asking you, that have experience in the matter, if you think there is a more advanced way to make that, not now and in this map but in general. Would be of great help for me to give one more step in my next maps.

[Hai-Etlik]

Yes, but as a separate chapter,I was asking you, that have experience in the matter, if you think there is a more advanced way to make that, not now and in this map but in general. Would be of great help for me to give one more step in my next maps.

There are pretty much three ways used to show elevation on modern maps. Contours, like you used, whether simple lines or coloured regions. It's very effective and is widely used. Continuous colour gradients can also be used; they can show more detail sometimes as you are flattening things into sharp bands, but sometimes they can also loose it as the colours are so close they blur together. The can also make it hard to figure out exactly what elevation a point is. Finally there is shaded relief which represents the light and shadow hitting the slopes, often from an impossible angle (The sun never shines from due north-west if you are in the northern hemisphere, but that's the most popular angle. Shaded relief is quite good at showing small details, but useless for understanding absolute elevations.

You can combine them if you want. There are even maps that use all three at once. There are certain ways of combining smooth elevation colours with shaded relief called "Swiss Shading", and this is often topped off with contour lines.

In your case, you might try locating a shaded relief layer for France. You could also get a DEM or Heightfield and build your own shaded relief layer from it using the right software.

[Megahercio]

There are pretty much three ways used to show elevation on modern maps. Contours, like you used, whether simple lines or coloured regions. It's very effective and is widely used. Continuous colour gradients can also be used; they can show more detail sometimes as you are flattening things into sharp bands, but sometimes they can also loose it as the colours are so close they blur together. The can also make it hard to figure out exactly what elevation a point is. Finally there is shaded relief which represents the light and shadow hitting the slopes, often from an impossible angle (The sun never shines from due north-west if you are in the northern hemisphere, but that's the most popular angle. Shaded relief is quite good at showing small details, but useless for understanding absolute elevations.

You can combine them if you want. There are even maps that use all three at once. There are certain ways of combining smooth elevation colours with shaded relief called "Swiss Shading", and this is often topped off with contour lines.

In your case, you might try locating a shaded relief layer for France. You could also get a DEM or Heightfield and build your own shaded relief layer from it using the right software.

Maybe my next step would be, reading your pieces of advice, to get a Heightfield program, mainly for battle maps and use the "Swiss Shading" for maps like this of France, although the technical aspect must not be any easy and the work infinite. The thing is to practice enough... Thanks very much, a great answer.