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Thread: Fonts on published D&D Maps

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    Question Fonts on published D&D Maps

    I'm not sure where this would go, so I'm just going to stick it in general.

    I was looking at some old published maps, specifically the map included in the 1983 World of Greyhawk Boxed set. Does anyone know, perchance, what kind of typeface they used for the stuff like region areas and city names?

    I really like it and was looking for something similar. Thanks!

  2. #2
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Ascension's Avatar
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    If you could scan it in and post it up I should be able to get close. I don't have the item in question but I have thousands of fonts...so looking it up might take me all night but I'll get it.
    If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
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    Well, instead of posthing the whole friggin map, I'll post some font "exerpts," so to speak.

    Having looked at it closer, it appears to me that everything there was actually hand done.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

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  4. #4
    Community Leader NeonKnight's Avatar
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    Yep, all done by hand. The Artist (Darlene) did design a font - Greyhawk Uncial - but I cannot find an example of the font to see what it looks like.
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    Although you won't match precisely the hand-lettered maps, try the Gothic > Celtic theme category at DaFont.com.
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  6. #6

    Post Do what I'd do...

    Do what I'd do in your situation. Find all the maps with this particular font you desire. Scan all the labels. I'd use a vector app like Illustrator, Inkscape or in my case Xara Xtreme and rescale all the font letters so that they are the same size then print it out. Take out a sheet of tracing paper and draw out the labels in the words you want. Scan again, import to your mapping program and place them onto your map.

    Although I don't do lots of hand-lettered labels - that's the process I'd do.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Gamerprinter View Post
    Do what I'd do in your situation. Find all the maps with this particular font you desire. Scan all the labels. I'd use a vector app like Illustrator, Inkscape or in my case Xara Xtreme and rescale all the font letters so that they are the same size then print it out. Take out a sheet of tracing paper and draw out the labels in the words you want. Scan again, import to your mapping program and place them onto your map.

    Although I don't do lots of hand-lettered labels - that's the process I'd do.

    GP
    Thats all well and good, minus the fact that I neither have the technology nor the expertise required for this :-).

  8. #8
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Ascension's Avatar
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    Here's what I've come up with.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

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    If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
    -J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)


    My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps

  9. #9
    Guild Adept Valarian's Avatar
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    If you break the image up in to separate samples, you could try running it through WhatTheFont. The Azure Sea font came out as a close match for Sualtim. It doesn't have the crossbar on the Z though. The font for The Great Kingdom comes out as Omnia.
    Last edited by Valarian; 01-16-2010 at 11:35 AM.
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    Professional Artist Carnifex's Avatar
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    The script that is used is called uncial. That might help you to find a nice font.

    Here's some more info:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncial

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