Hey, Im new to this forum and to cartography in general. Recently I have been working on an RPG and decided to make my own world map. So I came across autorealm. It may not be the best, but I am new to mapping so its a start. I have made my landmasses and exported the image file so I can edit it in Gimp. However, I am wondering if a few things are possible to do and if they are, Id like to know how to do it.

One thing Id like to do is add a border around the landmasses. Perhaps a black line that fades away as it gets further from the landmass for example. Is this even doable without doing it manually?

Another thing Id like to know is what a "rosette chart" is used for. I've seen them used in other maps however I cant really understand why they are used.

Ill probably ask more questions as I progress with the map. Ill also post some pictures if anyones interested in seeing it. I may be a little slow though, I'm a programmer not an artist haha. Thanks in advance guys!