"How to create a really large map" Topic

Hello
I would like to be able to draw my own maps (eg of the Waterloo campaign)
I have 2 questions
1 Does anyone know how they go about it in books, eg what software do they use, and how do they draw the basic map to start with.
Eg a mouse or with tablet and styles

2 What would be the best way to scan a map and then to expand it so that I could print it on a large eg A2 plan printer.
Ie what software could I use, that is readily available for an amateur.

Try this map first legacy.lib.utexas.edu/maps/ams/belgium_50k/txu-pclmaps-oclc-6624543-nivelles-66.jpg

A US Army map from the 30s great detail and starting point.

Some people use Campaign Cartographer, or a paint program. PowerPoint has basic drawing tools you might be able to manipulate. GIMP is a free art program.

What about this map?

link

Large format scanners exist. Staples might do that, or a print shop.

Thanks for the help.

But I really need more details on how book publishers and authors and cartographers do it.

I just want to make a large plain map with roads, rivers, woods and villages etc.

I am not really interested in a gaming scenario hobbit type world.

Digby

Are you wanting to create maps completely from scratch? If not, what stops you from pasting Google Maps screengrabs into a really big .jpg file and then going through it editing out anachronous features like motorways?

I use Corel Draw (a vector graphics application). There are a few free apps of similar type but I always found them to be awkward to use.

Bit-map editors (raster) can be very slow and laborious to use for large images and you certainly don't want to try it on compressed image formats such as JPG.

I find Google Earth and Google Maps perfectly adequate for pretty well all uses.

Let's face it, you need a map only to work out who gets where by when. Using Google Maps you can type in a start and end point and define the means of transport (which in our era is always going to be foot). You then click and drag the routes presented, and it tells you how far the distance is in miles or km per changed route.

Once you have a confrontation of opposing forces in the same space, you use the satellite view to look at (or indeed recce) the terrain, and if you hold down the control button you can angle it for a 3d view to see where the hills and valleys are.

It's stupendous. I struggle with why one needs paper or even bespoke maps at all.

The modern terrain in Belgium (for example) is not even like it was in WW1, never mind at the time of the Napoleonic Wars. Many waterways have had their courses changed and routes that are today minor roads were the main routes.

You may get lucky and find an area around a specific battlefield that has changed little but that is not common.

You probably like those history books I keep seeing these days where they refer to many places yet fail to give you a map so that you can locate them in the terrain and relative to each other.

Personally I'm a 'visual' person and I like to see a map of a campaign or battlefield, preferably with extraneous features removed. I don't own a smartphone or a tablet so taking computer images to a wargames table isn't possible for me and printing such is rarely a very satisfactory solution.

Rigby Green, Adobe Illustrator answers your question.

Hobbit type world?

Try the Cartographer's Guild…lots of tutorials, etc. Check out the forums.

link

Well book publishers would likely hire an artist to draw it either freehand or in graphic package like Corel Draw, or Adobe Photoshop. If you check out the Cartographer's Guild I think you'll find a lot of people use GIMP. It doesn't matter whether the map is historical or fantasy.

Professional Cartographers likely do it the same way, but probably have access to a library of standard templates: borders, symbols, colour palettes – all pre-set for the work they do.

My list of Useful Wargaming Software Links. hope it helps.

I use MappingBoard about halfway down the page

As always, comments are appreciated.

Take care

Andy

Thanks guys some great links Altfritz and Womble67

Just for now I have got some people from Fiverr to make me a couple of quick maps.

Maybe later I will be able to learn a proper graphics app like Inkscape or Gimp.

Thats a great list Andy

TFL do maps for Kriegspiel

link