Map of the Christian World: Advice Requested

[Corvus Marinus]

Hello, all. It's been quite a while since I hung around this forum. I've been working for months now on this mapping project for my church, which will ultimately be printed (2'x3') and used pedagogically. I'm in the final stage but one: all collected data has been placed, and most of the planned cosmetic additions are also complete.

I'd appreciate some thoughts and recommendations from more experienced mappers. In particular, I was wondering if anyone had inspiration on placing mountains. I tried several methods of denoting general topography, and all made the map more difficult to read or aesthetically unpleasing, so I'm wondering if I'll just have to leave it out completely.

This map was created in Inkscape and is 100% vector.

[J.Edward]

Generally speaking, a map should start from a plan of what is to be shown.
So, if mountains are to be involved, they need to be planned into the thing from the start [in my opinion].
Trying to place them later usually runs into the problem you are facing, where they are getting in the way of things you have already placed....
in effect, the things you did plan for. That said, there are ways to try to fit terrain into the mix.

First thing is that you would have to reconsider how your text is done.
Some text labels would, by default, need to be smaller to allow for the terrain to fit in.
It's doable. Harder, I think, in vector than in raster. [the terrain, that is]
However, you could always do a mix of raster and vector to make it work.
There are more options with raster for subtle texturing to create a terrain effect and to make the mountainous areas blend better.
There are very text heavy parts of the map and some of those sit right where you would be showing terrain.

The things I would do would be a lot of work. Probably more than you'd want to do.
Still, you've done a good job with what you have so far.

[Falconius]

That's really cool. I wouldn't bother with mountains and terrain features since that is really outside of the scope and purpose of the map.

If you really want to do something the only thing I could think of is some really soft underlay, either with a different colour shape block to indicate mountains region or a faint satellite height map. Both I think would kind of ruin the look though.

[Lars]

When looking over the map as it is, I don't see the omission of mountains as a weakness. If anything, quite the opposite; the map is very clear in what it wants to convey. Since mountain ranges did not really impact the spread of Christianity one way or another, their inclusion on the map wouldn't really increase the viewers understanding of the main subject matter. However, since the marked pilgrimage routes do pass major mountain ranges I can understand the wish to include them. An alternative could be to simply mark the mountain passes (with their elevation) that were used on the routes.

[Corvus Marinus]

Thanks for the initial comments.

Mountains were in the initial vision, but they were slowly downgraded in importance as I added more and more sites of interest. The map is a lot fuller than I expected at first. I don't want to shrink the labels either, because I'm concerned about legibility when printed.

A soft pale underlay was what I tried for mountains most recently. The main problem is that it confuses areas that are already divided by green/steppe-desert. To make it look good, I suspect I'd have to put in a lot more work and time than I can afford.

Lars, that's an interesting idea. I'll mull it over.

[kacey]

I don’t think it needs mountains the map looks great just as it is, great job on this.

[MistyBeee]

I'm in the "no mountains needed" team for this one ! And congrats for the good job : all those labels !!

[Tenia]

Tremendous work here and congratulations for the care given to the accents on French toponyms Like others, I don't think mountains are requisite on this map.