What is a good map drawer?

[xykonthelich]

I'm making a campaign setting right now and I am wondering if anyone has a program that is really nice for drawing stuff like that. Any suggestions?

[Eldest]

Depends on what sort of map. If you want an ultra-detailed map, Photoshop or cheat and use an obscure part of the Earth with Google Maps. If you want a simple, clearly marked map, Illustrator.

[Zeta Kai]

I say this every time that this question comes up, as it always bears repeating:

The Cartographer's Guild calls to you. Go there & learn your destiny.

Also, I've heard good things about GIMP, Campaign Cartographer 3.0, & Fractal Terrains Pro. I use Adobe Photoshop & Adobe Illustrator myself, but those are likely more expensive than you are willing to pay.

[Noctis Vigil]

Related (sort of) question: does anyone know where I can find 1 inch square graph paper? Or even half inch square? I get tired of drawing grids with a ruler.

[simply sner]

if you don't have illustratur - inkscape does the same and is freeware like gimp.

cartographer guild looks nice. thanks for repeating!

[simply sner]

Originally Posted by Noctis Vigil

Related (sort of) question: does anyone know where I can find 1 inch square graph paper? Or even half inch square? I get tired of drawing grids with a ruler.

you mean for a battle grid? some sheets for flipcharts come with a suitable grid.

[Fera Tian]

Originally Posted by Noctis Vigil

Related (sort of) question: does anyone know where I can find 1 inch square graph paper? Or even half inch square? I get tired of drawing grids with a ruler.

Target. Well maybe not, but you can probably find 1cm squares there.

[Dr.Orpheus]

The best cartographer is YOU!

It may seem like a pain doing it by hand, but a homemade map shows everyone how pro you are. If you are not good at drawing (like I once was) fallow these steps.

Spoiler

1 Take a colored pencil and sharpen it to the point you get bits of color as well as the wood shavings (do this over a plate).

2 Remove all the wood shavings.

3 Pick up the colored pencil shavings and place them on a tissue.

4 Rub it across the area you wish to make colorful (it would be best to draw outlines of the contents before you color). This technique yields the most even distribution of color and best shading.

5 Draw in geographical features, again if you can't draw them very well then don't but draw them uniformly this will make it look professional.

mountains over the gray areas with a hint of purple and an even smaller hint of brown

trees over the dark green areas

leave the light green/yellow with a hint of brown areas to be plains and draw lumps over it to turn them in to hills

light gray/light blue is good for tundra

light blue for lakes

blue or dark blue for oceans

yellow/orange/brown is used for deserts and its to make dunes kind of like very small hills or another option is to make a bunch of dots

Using this style of cartography can result in simple but colorful map that looks good, and if you are already good at drawing maps doing some of this could still help.

[nihil8r]

thanks for the tip on inkscape i'll check it out :)

[Tangwystyk]

http://www.gamingpaper.com/index.php has 1 inch graph paper in both hex and grid. I don't know if this is suitable for your use as you can't run it though a printer, though.

[Knaight]

Originally Posted by Noctis Vigil

Related (sort of) question: does anyone know where I can find 1 inch square graph paper? Or even half inch square? I get tired of drawing grids with a ruler.

http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/
That link gets you to a website that essentially allows you to create .pdf files of graph paper as you see fit. It has squares. It has hexes. It has octagons with squares between the "corners". It has rectangles made like bricks. Moreover, on every single one of these you can choose line color, line width, size of the square/hex/octagon/whatever, whether there are dots in the center of the square/hex/octagon/whatever, how large they are, so on and so forth. Moreover, one just enters in the numbers, and eventually they get the results. You want one inch square? You can have one inch square. You want precisely 1 1/16 inch by 1 1/16 inch? Done. You want to use the metric system? You totally can. Oh, and you can put it on any size of paper you want, up to the point of making a gigantic grid, getting it printed and laminated at a copy shop, and having a permanent gaming grid.

Basically, that is a wonderful website. I almost wish I played more games that needed grids simply because I have that thing bookmarked.