Map of Harren - Trouble with adding text

[jbgibson]

Have you found the excellent guide Ravells posted on positioning labels? Lots of goodness there.

The saturated colors are a style statement, a bold one. Since there's plenty you want labelled on this, perhaps you should experiment with a less saturated or lighter palette, to let the labels show up better? If your focus is the land, using less saturation on the sea makes it recede from notice a bit.

If the lighter water just means shallows, it looks mighty uniform. Take a look at Earth's continental shelves - they vary from zero width to hundreds of miles across. If it's just a device to set off the otherwise similar-value land and sea, consider a coastline stroke instead, and/or lightening either land or sea.

Is this for paper publication or an eBook? If paper, you may want to create a simpler B&W version for print, relegating the colored one to supplemental material in your online presence. Bonus material to give readers a reason to come to a website, shall we say. If for an eBook you can get away with a lot that can't be economically printed... but it's still support material for the story. I presume you want readers to be able to see where events take place, and to be able to locate places that characters themselves never visit, bu only speak of? If so, the legibility may matter more than the style. If your purpose is to set forth your world's aesthetic, to imply a period - then the look could matter as much as the content. Almost :-).

[Christopher Powell]

Yes, I found that later in the day after I started this thread. I have not waded through the entire text yet but it is very helpful so far.

That was my big worry with the heavy saturation. I didn't start out to make it that way but when I stumbled upon that I liked it and decided to go all out with it. If I had found this site earlier in the design process I probably would have a completely different looking map right now lol. But I've put enough time into this one and I actually really like the look of it.

I like your idea of desaturating it just a little bit so I'll experiment with that. I might have a few new versions to post for critique tonight or tomorrow.

I definitely need to create a B&W version though for eventual print, but I still want the full color for digital.