Anther - First Map

[Drowned Fairy]

Hey, hey, hey guys,

After countless hours of writing my fantasy novel and going full Roman in Civilization (tm), I asked myself: "Why not make a map?"
And here I am.
Though I did not expect this type of map (full colored, detailed, etc.), I was completely happy with myself after knowing that it is apparently very easy to make continents (hooray!)

Anyway, after repeatedly reading and finding new tutorials and tips, I just want to say two things:
1. My mind is blown in awesomeness at the amount of details people put in their map and their tutorials.
2. My mind is blown in aggravation at some of the things that I barely understand.

If you guys don't mind, can anyone who knows relieve me of my problems by answering these questions?
I'll just leave out the details of how I gained them if you guys don't mind. Of course, I also don't mind if you guys want to know.
I. How do you use kilometers/meters/miles per pixel in your map?
II. What is the mathematical equation to determine how many km/m/miles per pixel does this particular resolution allow? (e.g 21,600 x 10,800 = 2 km/pixel. How do you know that?)
III. On some maps, like Forgotten Realms recent Faerun map, there's a bordered line in two colors showing numbers and miles, what is that (including the name so I won't forget) and how do you use it?

Here's the one from Faerun:
Something Unknown.jpg

IV. And last but not least, how do you make the map, where instead of being colored, make it plain instead? (Like how you would find black, gray and white colored maps instead of the colored one in books)
Is it possible even after using the Threshold and Render>Cloud filter?

So without further ado, behold, my first map, made in Photoshop CS5.

First Map - Tear's Tut.jpg

Comments and Criticism would be greatly appreciated.
I would also like to thank Tear for the detailed and easy to follow tutorial from which this particular map is based of.

Cheers,

p.s Are there any websites you guys might know where I can get resources? (Textures, Patterns, Brushes, Fonts and the like)

[Ghostman]

Hello and welcome to the Cartographer's Guild, Twistomud!

I. How do you use kilometers/meters/miles per pixel in your map?

That's the sort of information that you can choose to either display on the map, or leave it out. Even if you don't spell it out, it's generally a good idea to figure out for yourself how large the area being shown on the map is, so that you have some general idea of the distances.

II. What is the mathematical equation to determine how many km/m/miles per pixel does this particular resolution allow? (e.g 21,600 x 10,800 = 2 km/pixel. How do you know that?)

First, you should decide the dimensions of the area your map will represent. Eg. 50km x 20km. Once you know that, decide the maximum size of the image you're prepared to handle, in terms of pixels. Eg. 12,000 pixels wide/high. Then you just divide this maximum value by the greater of the dimensions of the mapped area: 12,000px/50km = 240px/km. This number is the ratio used for your map. Now that you know the ratio, you can multiply the smaller area dimension by it to find the respective pixel size for the image: 20km x 240px/km = 4,800px.

III. On some maps, like Forgotten Realms recent Faerun map, there's a bordered line in two colors showing numbers and miles, what is that (including the name so I won't forget) and how do you use it?

Here's the one from Faerun:
Something Unknown.jpg

That is called a scale. The numbers above the line show the distance (in this case, in miles) over the mapped area that corresponds to the length of the line up to that number, starting from the 0. If you put a scale on your map, you need to make sure that it's correctly sized - that is, it's length in pixels actually corresponds to the labeled distance.

IV. And last but not least, how do you make the map, where instead of being colored, make it plain instead? (Like how you would find black, gray and white colored maps instead of the colored one in books)
Is it possible even after using the Threshold and Render>Cloud filter?

You can probably find a menu command to turn the image into "grayscale" in whatever software you're using. If you actually want to make the map into black&white lineart, you'll need to clear or hide all the elevation clouds/texturing. This will be easier if you're using multiple layers when editing the map picture (and save it in a format that preserves the layers).

So without further ado, behold, my first map, made in Photoshop CS5.

First Map - Tear's Tut.jpg

Comments and Criticism would be greatly appreciated.

A good first map. There seems to be a river (the only one on the map?) on the central island that runs across mountain ranges. That's impossible, because water always runs downhill. You might want to search this forum for tips on how to place rivers - there should be plenty of information on that subject.

[Drowned Fairy]

Thank you very very much man
I've found a different way of making it into black and white, but I also thank you for that answer and the other ones.
The mathematical equation got me a bit confused at first until I realized I was using km/px instead of px/km, after that though, it was pretty easy.
And then regarding the scale part:
Is it used only if you wish to make a printed version of the map or can it be used digitally?
I also facepalmed myself so hard after you said that it was a scale, quite likely the last thing I would have ever thought of.

And also thank you for the river tip.
I never really researched the subject of river placements before since it was not entirely in my train of thoughts when I was looking at the unfinished map.
Again, I thank you for the answer to my questions and regarding the river placements

Cheers.

[Ghostman]

Is it used only if you wish to make a printed version of the map or can it be used digitally?

That's an odd question. There's no reason why you couldn't include a scale on a digital map. Just browsing the works uploaded by users of this website should show plenty of digital maps that include scales.

[Drowned Fairy]

That's an odd question. There's no reason why you couldn't include a scale on a digital map. Just browsing the works uploaded by users of this website should show plenty of digital maps that include scales.

I see.
Again, thank you for answering the question