How can I add "info pins" to my map.

[Linesey]

Hello.
I have been slowly working on a map for my world using Krita so I have an existing image (map) to work with.

I've been starting to run into issues with tracking all my smaller locations on it (bridges, towns, that one important farm, etc.)
I'm looking for a way (a program I can use) that lets me drag and drop "pins" onto the map which can hold a brief description of what I placed it on, and a reference to my notes. Sort of a google maps style pin system.
The reference dosn't need to be a link or anything clickable, just a few lines of text I can enter so I can remind myself where to look.

I've tried using a legend or a series of 1, 2, 3, etc. notes, but my map is rather large and i keep hating what I've done and redoing it so frequently that baking the notes or a legend into the map at this time has not been working.

Dose anyone know of a tool or program I can use to address this.
Due to my incredible paranoia I can't bring myself to use web based platforms such as inkarnate or world anvil, so I've been looking for an offline solution.
I have been trying to find an answer for this for a while now with no luck.

I've seen references to making the map a KML or KMZ file for Google earth, but I don't know enough about how that works to know if my map would stay local, or be uploaded to some google server somewhere (like I said, paranoid)
I've looked at CC3 but it seems more suited to making (very beautiful) maps vs mine which serves both to anchor my notes but also as a to-scale technical document for the world i'm building. and unless I missed something CC3 wouldn't support an external image like mine to import.

I'm wondering if anyone here knows of something that can answer my problem, or sees some glaring hole in what I've come to understand about other options and can set me straight.

Sorry if this is off topic or the wrong place to post this, I've just been running into a brick wall, and this is the last place i can think of to ask for help before giving up and trying something else entirely.

~lin

[Styescape]

This is a nice case for considering the use of QGIS. It is a Geographical Information System and normally used for "real" geographical use. But it is possible to use that for your issue too.
It is an offline software, so no worrys about uploading data.

If you want to use it, at first some advices: After you started the software, you just start a new project and could add your map via "open raster". Depending on your map, it might be displayed in the right proportions already. If not, "georeference" it (Tutorial) and it should work.

Now you use "create vector layer", change its type to "point" and add a "column" with type: "text" and the amount of characters you might need for your description. All of these options are within the same dialogue of creating a vector layer. After you saved that, you can add points to that layer (there is an "edit" button looking like a pencil, which you have to push first!) and with adding a point, a dialogue opens where you can add your text information.

There are several more options to add data and also different options to display your information, use them with an info prompt and the like. All these steps are part of my plannend second QGIS tutorial and I hope I can finish it within the next week. So if you want to use QGIS for your issue, you may wait for me to finish the tutorial or, of course, you can just ask me for further steps, if you work with QGIS by yourself! For learning QGIS standard features, I recommend the Training Manual.

[Linesey]

That sounds like exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for, thank you so much!

Ill take a look at that tutorial and start reading up on it.

Thank you again,
~lin

[Redrobes]

Another nice way to do it is to use a browser and write your own local HTML file and add in a couple of links to your map image using the image map linking system. If you only want to define a small circle or similar then its very easy to do. If you want to define a border with an odd outline then you can do that with a polygon shape but you need a little app to help you draw the shape. Then you click inside the circle area and it takes you off to another webpage.

Heres a little tutorial out there showing the more complicated polygon border type:
https://html.com/images/how-to-make-an-image-map/

I personally run my own little wiki where I can edit my own pages. Its hosted on my own PC so there is no external access and nobody can shut it off. There are loads of them out there but I prefer to run the very old UseMod wiki:
http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/wiki.pl

UseMod was the original code which ran wikipedia before they changed over to the more modern MediaWiki. You need to run a web server such as Apache or like this site were on nginx as well.

Now apache & nginx are both excellent and really powerful but a bit complicated to set up so on my old windows machine I was running a small lightweight http web server like tinyweb I think it was. These are really easy to set up. So you host your own web page and your own wiki on it.

So now your hosting your own web page with your map image on it via your html page which has the map links set for it. Make your links to your wiki pages and edit the text on the wiki pages like any other wiki. From a wiki you can also link out to internet resources like images and other stuff that seems useful to you. Thats where the wiki scores over a normal text file.

I wrote a large mapping app called ViewingDale which integrated all of this stuff and it was very cool but no longer available. It was what we called a virtual table top app - or VTT. There are many other VTT apps out there. I recall MapTool being very popular and free. You could link all sorts of stuff into the map using that one too. I still use my ViewingDale all the time and all of the community projects on this site are composited on it and then I upload the zoomy maps to this site. You might still be able to see a you tube video of it in action somewhere.

MapTool:
https://www.rptools.net/

BattlegroundsRPG is a non free one by Heruca (a member here) and has a comparison chart of currently available VTTs:
http://battlegroundsgames.com/vtt-comparison-chart/

[Titivilus]

You could also look at Realm Works, a relational database by Lone Wolf Development. It is, unfortunately, no longer supported by LWD, but I continue to use it for my campaigns.

RW allows you to import maps and then to place pins tied to locations, people, or events on the map. Pins can be seen either by the just the GM or by both the GM and the players.

It is not a specifically cartographic solution, but I have found the program immensely useful.

[Linesey]

Thank you all for your suggestions, and your help.

And thank you Styescape, with your advice and wonderful tutorial I got up and running with QGIS and it is proving to be everything I needed and more (the ability to measure area is going to save countless headaches)

The ability to pin my maps like this (or rather lack there of) has been a huge block to me, and now I am able to more forward again and really get back to the parts of the mapping and creating process I love.
This has made a world of difference, thank you again so much.
~lin

[Styescape]

You're welcome! I'm glad if someone could use it. I wasn't sure if QGIS does help, if one has to get started at "zero" with it and learn how to do all this stuff. So thanks for giving feedback, that helps for considerations about next tutorial steps. I hope to deliver the next one soon.