Quote Originally Posted by Ascension View Post
Go with the free stuff first, Gimp or Inkscape. Low cost alternatives are Campaign Cartographer and Paint Shop Pro. Read through the threads in the Software Discussion section for more info and look at the Finished Maps section to see what other folks use.
Two equally good low cost alternatives are Fractal Mapper 8 and Dundjinni. With FM8, you also can download the complete manual-tutorial and use it with the free trial version to see if it's what you want. FM8 is a very easy program to use. So is Dundjinni, but its use for town and overland maps is a bit limited. Campaign Cartographer 3 also is a good program, but it is very difficult to learn.

If you just want to draw maps, the free programs The GIMP and Paint.NET are excellent. However, these are graphic programs, not cartographic or map-making programs. Adobe PhotoShop (expensive) and Corel Paint Shop Pro (medium priced) are two retail alternatives in this category.

If you want a free cartographic program, some people seem to be pretty happy with AutoRealm. I haven't used it, so I can't comment on it. But you can get it at:

http://autorealm.sourceforge.net/download.php