Is Adobe Illustrator a good program for maps?

[WoodytheClimateGuy]

Hello! I plan to get Adobe Creative Cloud (I think), and I want to know something. Do you guys use Adobe Illustrator for your maps? Or at least think it's a good program? Artifexian said that it's a good program and uses it in his videos. I want to use a vector program that can handle high-def maps. I use Inkscape, but it tends to lag a bit when the detail gets high, and in his videos, Illustrator doesn't do that. Does it? I know it's a good program, but I want some other opinions on this before we buy it. Thank you to however answers!

[Gamerprinter]

Sure, vector programs are great. I use Xara Designer Pro, which is a less expensive vector drawing program, but I use it as my primary tool to design maps, and I do this professionally for the game industry. Among the advantages of using vector instead of an image editor like Photoshop are:

1. In an image editing program like Photoshop, you have to preset your pixel dimensions and the overall size at the start of the project, and you cannot easily increase scales without issues. In a vector program pixels aren't even a consideration until you finish the map and export to bitmap format like JPG or PNG - only then are pixels even a part of the process.

2. Vector is generally faster at re-drawing, effects application compared to image editing, which makes the overall process of creating a map faster and less memory intensive for your computer.

3. Fills, while you can fill your drawn shape with colors and color mixes, you can also fill your shapes with photo textures, so that it looks more like a map created in an image editing software (like Photoshop)

4. Vector programs let you create varying width lines. Meaning you could draw a river as a solid line from the coast to it's source, but you can set the line so that it's 4 points width at the start of the line and diminishes to 0 points at the line, meaning the river is wider near the coast and it gets narrower towards it's source - like a real river, that gets more volume of water on it's length. I usually convert the line to a shape, and cut that shape out of the shape of the land. I can apply bevels and make a river appear to erode into the land itself.

5. Labels are much easier to apply, apply to curved lines, change attributes on the fly - you have much more control over your labels than you would in an image editing program. I know people who use Photoshop to create their maps, but then use Illustrator to do all the labels.

6. Rescaling previously created content to larger dimensions is easy to do in vector.

Here's one of my typical maps created in Xara Designer Pro - note how it doesn't look like what you might expect from vector...

GP

[Tiana]

Sure, you use Inkscape, Illustrator is a logical upgrade. I use Affinity Designer, it's a cheaper program of a similar sort. I feel like you can't ONLY use vector for many map styles, so either you'll need the full Adobe suite (Photoshop is popular) or another program like Affinity Photo for finishing techniques.

[WoodytheClimateGuy]

Sure, you use Inkscape, Illustrator is a logical upgrade. I use Affinity Designer, it's a cheaper program of a similar sort. I feel like you can't ONLY use vector for many map styles, so either you'll need the full Adobe suite (Photoshop is popular) or another program like Affinity Photo for finishing techniques.

I am actually get the Creative Cloud license, which gives you all of the programs, but its a membership.

[WoodytheClimateGuy]

Sure, vector programs are great. I use Xara Designer Pro, which is a less expensive vector drawing program, but I use it as my primary tool to design maps, and I do this professionally for the game industry. Among the advantages of using vector instead of an image editor like Photoshop are:

1. In an image editing program like Photoshop, you have to preset your pixel dimensions and the overall size at the start of the project, and you cannot easily increase scales without issues. In a vector program pixels aren't even a consideration until you finish the map and export to bitmap format like JPG or PNG - only then are pixels even a part of the process.

2. Vector is generally faster at re-drawing, effects application compared to image editing, which makes the overall process of creating a map faster and less memory intensive for your computer.

3. Fills, while you can fill your drawn shape with colors and color mixes, you can also fill your shapes with photo textures, so that it looks more like a map created in an image editing software (like Photoshop)

4. Vector programs let you create varying width lines. Meaning you could draw a river as a solid line from the coast to it's source, but you can set the line so that it's 4 points width at the start of the line and diminishes to 0 points at the line, meaning the river is wider near the coast and it gets narrower towards it's source - like a real river, that gets more volume of water on it's length. I usually convert the line to a shape, and cut that shape out of the shape of the land. I can apply bevels and make a river appear to erode into the land itself.

5. Labels are much easier to apply, apply to curved lines, change attributes on the fly - you have much more control over your labels than you would in an image editing program. I know people who use Photoshop to create their maps, but then use Illustrator to do all the labels.

6. Rescaling previously created content to larger dimensions is easy to do in vector.

Here's one of my typical maps created in Xara Designer Pro - note how it doesn't look like what you might expect from vector...

GP

I am still using a vector program because it is higher definition. I am just asking you if Creative Cloud, specifically Illustrator.

[Tiana]

I am actually get the Creative Cloud license, which gives you all of the programs, but its a membership.

Personally, I don't think Creative Cloud is worth it unless you plan to use more than 1 Adobe program, but if you plan to also use Photoshop, InDesign, AfterEffects, Animate, etc, then it's worth it, they have a lot of programs with enormous value to the right creators. If you're just tinkering around having a good time doing personal maps, Inkscape is good enough and a cheaper program like Xara or Affinity is a fine upgrade choice.

[Falconius]

Inkscape is laggy, but Adobe is expensive (and over priced IMO). I don't know of any programs that don't provide free trails, including Adobe Illustrator and Affinity, so when you have a nice block of time you should just give them a try out and see what you like more.

[Rubikia]

I use Inkscape, and while on my old laptop (i3) it was laggy, on my new one (Ryzen 7) it works quite well and I can have thousands of lines and assets without any noticeable lag. I think it is dependent on the hardware, rather than the software. Everyone's experience might be different.

[Gamerprinter]

I am still using a vector program because it is higher definition. I am just asking you if Creative Cloud, specifically Illustrator.

I use Creative Cloud as well, mostly to access Photoshop, but I use InDesign, sometimes too, especially for print ready cover designs required for POD printing at DrivethruRPG's printing house requirements. It's worth it for my needs, but then I am a professional illustrator and publisher, so I have other needs than just map-making. I rarely use Photoshop - maybe I want a certain color scheme tweaked to be more brown or green or something, or fix an artifact on an image I'm using as a repeating image fill. I almost exclusively use Xara, for the purposes of what you'd be using Illustrator to accomplish - which Illustrator is more than capable of doing. I just prefer Xara, myself.

I also have been using 3D software, both modeling and rendering. At first for odd map objects that are difficult to depict understandably in 2D, however, I've recently been creating entirely 3D maps, but that's a completely different animal and off-topic. Most of my mapping is still done using Xara.

[WoodytheClimateGuy]

Personally, I don't think Creative Cloud is worth it unless you plan to use more than 1 Adobe program, but if you plan to also use Photoshop, InDesign, AfterEffects, Animate, etc, then it's worth it, they have a lot of programs with enormous value to the right creators. If you're just tinkering around having a good time doing personal maps, Inkscape is good enough and a cheaper program like Xara or Affinity is a fine upgrade choice.

I plan use Creative Cloud for Illustrator and Photoshop for my maps, Animate for, well take a wild guess, and Premiere Pro for video editing because I want to start up my video channel.