What is your methodology for labeling your map?

[swiss]

Do you all have some rules of thumb for what labels you add and their visibility between 'Print Size' and 'Fit Screen' size? How do you balance naming everything you want with having it look cluttered?

[Arimel]

To be perfectly honest, I don't do this that well. However, I did remember reading a how-to guide a while back on this topic that thankfully was made sticky. Here is a link to it. I have not read it in a while, but I remember it being really well written.


https://www.cartographersguild.com/s...ad.php?t=12373
(Positioning Names on a Map by Ravells. It is under the reference material subheading)

It goes into name positioning, font and everything else (just skimmed through it again and is as great as I remember!).

[Falconius]

Real maps tend to be cluttered with place names, especially the earlier maps, so I wouldn't worry about that as a problem.

[Gamerprinter]

Rules for labeling? Every map has their own needs regarding labels. Some labels I place inside a banner, so just sit as text on the page. I tend to do black or white (with halo shadow) depending on whether the map is background is dark or light. While I might use a Celtic font, I try to use fonts that are readable (many fonts aren't suitable to labels being too fancy and difficult to read). I will sometimes use a different and different scale for a regional label versus a city label. I will often choose a different font for the main map title. I don't have one set of label rules, as stated each map has it's own requirements. Another consideration is sometimes I use a Celtic style font for a European-based map, I'll use something else for Asian, Egyptian, Viking - I try to use fonts that match the culture of the map area, but nothing too fancy, nor unreadable.

[Azélor]

I simply try to keep it simple. As Gameprinter said, avoid fonts that are too fancy. They are good for design but rarely appropriate for maps.
The font I use then to have some elements that make them special but it's always subtle and easy to read.
I think the font should reflect the setting of the map.

I tend to use a single font or two at most and change the size for important places or lager things like ocean and continents.


When it comes to decide on what to name, that depends what the map is all about, what you want to put the emphasis on.
If you have a map with a lot of details and colours, you can't put as many names because they will hide some of the details. Also, the style is probably more important than the information with a fantasy map.
If you want to put a lot of names on the map, then you need a style that is simpler.

[DrWho42]

i tend to strive for legibility as i want my maps to be more accessible than not

[Tiana]

I set it to more or less print size on my screen and eyeball it. I try not to go lower than 12pt text, I find myself averaging out around 30-40pt for more important text and 15-20pt for less important text for what tends to be the average size print: around 11x14-17 inches. There's always at least a few pixels of negative space between any article of text. Text must always have a contrasting element underneath it, if there is not enough contrast between it and the background I always do either a dark or light stroke, and ideally, a glow outside of that for certain situations where text must be placed over a background element. If I can get away with planning around text, I will, for a better experience... so sometimes I'll start by drawing in text by hand just to sort of figure out where I want it to go before I consider final fonts. This has resulted in multiple hand-lettered maps as some clients liked that look.

Note that contrast should be not just different colors, because sometimes people are colorblind or monitors are bad. There's a reason that black text with a white outline is so popular, or white text with a black outline. It's very readable.

I try to use the same font throughout, unless it's a fancy label, in which case I will use no more than TWO fonts. If I want to have different text for different features I will have it bolded, italicized, or caps versus no caps.

I never have two lines directly adjacent to each other, if that would happen I tilt both pieces of text so they are at angles and don't create straight lines across the work and mix people up with where lines start and end.

[swiss]

All good thoughts, thank you!

[SoaringMoon]

I tend to make the labels smaller and the map scale larger, that way I can fit more stuff in it (like the map in my signature).

I typically just do everything by eye. I determine the smallest text I want to ever use. Then scale text around that first.

There is a concept called "first sight", "second sight", and "third sight" which is generally a good design philosophy.

Bigger brighter stuff will be seen first.

Followed by large grey text, and small colored text.

Then finally small flat colored text.