Results 1 to 7 of 7

Thread: Best style for borders?

Hybrid View

Previous Post Previous Post   Next Post Next Post
  1. #1
    Guild Journeyer
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    Brisbane, Queensland
    Posts
    112

    Default Best style for borders?

    What does everyone think the best border style is? (I'm referring to a border over the entire map, not just between political entities)

  2. #2
    Guild Journeyer
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Location
    Maryland, USA
    Posts
    123

    Default

    Hello:
    I have always favored clean solid borders for maps. I have seen some very nice lace borders on pee-colonal maps that was interesting.

    Tracker

  3. #3
    Guild Expert Guild Supporter Lingon's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Location
    Sweden
    Posts
    1,212

    Default

    Depends entirely on the style of the map. For pure fantasy or sci-fi maps with small historic relevance, something that connects to the setting is usually a good choice, like dwarven or elven runes, some pattern that could be drawn by one of the cultures in the area, etc. It should probably be kept as simple as possible though, to not distract from the map itself. If you're making something history-based, the best way is to look at real maps from the period and draw something inspired by that (or even download a map and use the very same border, if the copyright for the chosen map has expired). For modern maps, I think something extremely simple looks best; a single or double line in the same color as the graticule, for example.

  4. #4
    Guild Journeyer
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    Brisbane, Queensland
    Posts
    112

    Default

    Good stuff. I've noticed that black and white borders seem to be very popular as well; that probably correlates with what you said about the border not distracting the viewer from the map itself.

  5. #5
    Community Leader Guild Sponsor - Max -'s Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Location
    France
    Posts
    4,220

    Default

    Indeed, whatever the border style and its complexity you choose, the most important is the balancing with the map to not distract from the map itself. Sometimes the border can even contain some useful elements for the map, like heraldry, mini-drawings of creatures or inhabitants, major cultural/religious symbol etc.

  6. #6

    Default

    Something simple and straightforward for the border itself is probably best, for obvious reasons. However I am a fan of those early modern maps with all sorts of stuff arranged outside the map itself. A fairly common one seems to have been portraits of "typical" people from various regions on the map, and drawings of major cities along the top. It doesn't distract from the map itself as much as you might think, either. Even something completely over-the-top like Petro Plancio's map has a reasonable example of the two combined, although perhaps the ratio of illustration:map is a bit out. There's a good strong border around the map itself with latitude markings, and then lots of interesting stuff to look at around the edge.

  7. #7

    Default

    That's a fantastic map (Petro Plancio`s)!

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •