World map WIP

[Steel General]

I like the font you used for the labeling, but at this resolution I can't read any of the smaller town names.

[mearrin69]

Thanks. It's a random font I've never even noticed before. Kind of cool though.

I agree that the smaller labels are pretty useless. I think I'll just increase the size of the capital names and include just a couple of major cities for each area (with slightly larger font there too). I think they might show up at print resolution (it's 12.something" by 8.5" @ 300 dpi) but it's too busy even if they did. Maybe I'll leave the markers though.

It's too much for a map showing half of the world. I'll look at some real maps to see how much detail they go into. I'm thinking a map of the Americas probably shows NYC, LA, Mexico City, Buenos Ares, and maybe a handful more.
M

Edit - One question for those in the know: What should I do about marking scale on this map? The planet is Earth-sized, which would make the map about 12,450 miles across at the equator...but the distortion of the cylindrical projection would make the width much less as you moved up or down from that, right? Should it be based on some sort of average - i.e. the circumference at 45%? Is there a standard method? I searched a bit but didn't turn up anything (though my Google-fu may be weak).

[mearrin69]

Just playing around tonight to see if I come up with other styles I liked. I've got the "stuff" mostly figured out so now it's just a matter of figuring out how I want to represent it. This one has saturation reduced and has been overlaid with a dirty parchment texture. Labels and symbols added in Illustrator.

Not the easiest thing to read, I admit. Still, I liked the script font...though it didn't work well for the legend and map title. I'll probably go for something more formal in the end.
M

[Ascension]

Looks fine to me, I do the same thing all of the time...a tan layer with a blend mode of hue or color. What you might want to do is make two versions of the map, one color and one parchment. On the parchment one you need to add a black or brown stroke to the landmass and rivers but that's about all.