(WIP) Arch City of Nessa'Mor

[XCali]

You could turn them all centrally aligned?

A quick note about the border here - You really need the same gap all the way around to do a decent looking border - unless you have one of the four sides vastly bigger than the other three for text or something like that.

On the label front - labels are more visible if there is a reasonably high contrast with the lining, so if you go gold, go very pale gold

Cool beans. I'll add a version later with different settings.

On the border. Yeah, my thoughts exactly. Though I have no clue how to do it. Even with the alignment tool, I haven't figured it out yet.

EDIT: I use GIMP

[Mouse]

Well....

I've gone and forgotten what software you are using, so this may make sense, and it may not, but in GIMP...

If your map is X px wide, and Y px tall, and if you want the border all the way around to be 200 px (this is just an example and not 'the ideal width' or anything) then you need to enlarge your map canvas (not the map layers but canvas) by 2 x 200 px in both directions, which means you will have to break the little chain link thing and manually add 400 px to both dimensions.

If it's GIMP you're using, then you can do the alignment of the map layers while you are expanding the canvas.

[Tenia]

In my opinion the overall looking is great, there is something in this work, contrats of colors, shapes, I love it. Don't touch the sea and rocks, they are hypnotic Just keep the same style on the top and the sky... Go on !

[XCali]

Well....

I've gone and forgotten what software you are using, so this may make sense, and it may not, but in GIMP...

If your map is X px wide, and Y px tall, and if you want the border all the way around to be 200 px (this is just an example and not 'the ideal width' or anything) then you need to enlarge your map canvas (not the map layers but canvas) by 2 x 200 px in both directions, which means you will have to break the little chain link thing and manually add 400 px to both dimensions.

If it's GIMP you're using, then you can do the alignment of the map layers while you are expanding the canvas.

Okay. Though I'm not too sure how to work in px. My canvas size is 3508 x 2551

That last one is definitely good to know. I went about it an other way around, so that might be my problem with the alignment tool. So thanks.

[XCali]

In my opinion the overall looking is great, there is something in this work, contrats of colors, shapes, I love it. Don't touch the sea and rocks, they are hypnotic Just keep the same style on the top and the sky... Go on !

Ah, thanks a bunch Tenia! I really appreciate it!

I have to ask what you meant exactly with 'Just keep the same style on the top and the sky'. I didn't quite understand what you were alluding to.

But again thank you for the compliments.

Have a nice day.

[Mouse]

It doesn't matter if you make it too wide to start with because you can always trim the canvas size to fit it once you've done the border, so try adding vastly too much, like 1000 px in both dimensions (re-sizing your canvas to 4508 x 3551), which will give you 500 pixels all the way around to play with.

Once you've finished drawing the border you can trim the canvas to fit the border

EDIT: when you are resizing the canvas in the dialogue box that opens up for you to give the new coordinates, you will see an alignment option below the resizing boxes. If you make sure that 'Centre' is selected you should be fine

[XCali]

Hi everyone,

This is a purely technical experiment.
I just changed the alignment on Fort Silverman. Still a bit 50/50 about that one.

And then added a LOT of different text for checking out what works best for a fantasy map like this.

This is a discussion on the matter. So I would like to know what number text works best and why before I throw in my thoughts on the matter.

The font is Century Schoolbook Bold.

[XCali]

Hi,

Thought I'd add a second one today. I'm still keen on hearing your thoughts on the different colour text.

For this I drew a storm drain and brushed the way down to the see. And tried one of the sets of name colours out for this one.

[Mouse]

If the choice was mine to make, I'd do white text with a black glow around it. I'm not keen on any of the coloured versions for different reasons in each case. But that is only my opinion - so don't make your choice based purely on mine

The font you are using is a tricky one, since it has very slender parts to the letters that can make it less legible at very small sizes. However, if you like that font, I wouldn't start adding lots of other fonts on the same map. I'd stick with just the one font for all the labels on the map, and maybe a slightly different one for the title that is closely related to the first.

[XCali]

If the choice was mine to make, I'd do white text with a black glow around it. I'm not keen on any of the coloured versions for different reasons in each case. But that is only my opinion - so don't make your choice based purely on mine

The font you are using is a tricky one, since it has very slender parts to the letters that can make it less legible at very small sizes. However, if you like that font, I wouldn't start adding lots of other fonts on the same map. I'd stick with just the one font for all the labels on the map, and maybe a slightly different one for the title that is closely related to the first.

What font/fonts would you suggest then? I'm all ears. (Though a free one would be best.)
I was thinking in the line of what would be fitting on a Fantasy Tabletop map. But legibility is also key.