Map of Harren - Trouble with adding text

[Viking]

I just did a quick thing showing an approach you could try. I used simpler fonts in smaller sizes keeping things straighter. For the larger names I double spaced between the letters of the names which isn't always advisable but I know it gets done sometimes. You'll notice the white outlines or drop shadows don't always aid in legibility. Here I personally find the unoutlined text clearer. For the ashlands I used a lighter font against the darker background. Whatever you do try to keep things consistent as in all political names have a single font, colour and possibly size, regional names another set, perhaps bodies of water another but try to avoid making every name unique.

One thing I did not experiment with is opacity. The lower the opacity on text the more subtle it becomes. On large pieces of text this is sometimes desirable so it does not overpower the rest of the landscape and smaller names.

In my sample I could have renamed the Vejr isles the Vejr sea. I just realized maybe two those Js are supposed to be Ts :p My bad!!!

[Christopher Powell]

Thanks for the great suggestions Viking.

Yeah, you misspelled some of the names, but I'll take the blame for that since I used crazy fonts that are difficult to read.

My primary concern was that I made my map too colorful, and that I would have to do a major redesign to make it actually informative instead of just pretty to look at. You have given me hope with your examples!

@Azelor
That is an interesting suggestion. I think it also pinpoints what exactly felt so wrong about the larger map with text. The storm in the center clashes with having the text rotated in a way that doesn't complement it. I'm not convinced I want to lose the readability yet but I will definitely experiment with that. Thank you very much!