How to draw coral reef on B&W map?

[Matthew VE]

I'm working on a commission right now, and the map has a coral reef. I'm not sure what is the best way to represent it is.
The map is black and white, any suggestions? Help is much appreciated!

[Voolf]

Hmm, coral reefs are quite difficult to depict on map.... corals are below water which means usually wont be seen. On colour map you can make coral reef sea area more lighter vibrant blue, or even draw some corals and make the visible through transparent water. But with B&W i can't see this work.

You can eventually look at Great Barrier Reef photos from above on google.

[Ghostman]

Maybe a field of stylistic symbols to represent corals?

[djan]

What I thought I had seen in maps, is using dotted lines for the outline of the reef. Found some examples:

Dotted lines for the underwater part and spiky things above water:
http://marshall.csu.edu.au/Marshalls...p_Rongelap.jpg

Same:
http://www.qhatlas.com.au/node/1417/zoomify


Dark blue ridged outline (could use dotted line in black and white map):
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/histo...makin_1943.jpg

Fill the shallow waters with small dots pattern:
http://www.qhatlas.com.au/sites/defa...-rm2456e-m.jpg

[Abu Lafia]

I'd say it really depends on the type of linework you are doing for your map, and especially for depicting the sea. But i think a change in density or style of linework could work to symbolize the reef (or maybe a very(!) slight marking of the outlines?). I guess you just have to make sure, that it's subtle enough compared with the linework on the land to make it clearly distinguishable.
Ofc you can orient yourself on standard atlas maps often depicting reefs as redish bubbly (out)lines, or have a look how sand banks are represented on maps like this one .
As said, i think in the end it depends on the representation of the rest of the geographical features on your map, and ofc what suits you the best.

Edit: oh, major ninja attck by djan!

Edit2: I love the first two maps djan linked for the wild zigzaggy reefs...

[snodsy]

Nice ideas so far, I would think
1. Thin lines, maybe broken
2. Stipple pattern
3. Hatch pattern or other consistent pattern of short dashes

Interesting problem to solves, good luck

[Danielle Antenucci]

Ofc you can orient yourself on standard atlas maps often depicting reefs as redish bubbly (out)lines, or have a look how sand banks are represented on maps like this one .

Oh, I really like this Jutland Reef drawing.

It will help me with a project I'm working on for a waterborne D&D campaign that I am running. :-)

Dani

[damonjynx]

You could always try something like Dyson does with his forest, sans the trunks of course. After all a coral reef is really just an underwater forest of sorts...

An example: https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/p...7042?icm=false

[Matthew VE]

Thanks a lot everyone for all these ideas! I will experiment a bit and see what works the best with the map. I'm getting pretty close to done the map, so I'll post it in a few days.