I've long been an admirer of maps and the many skilled cartographers on this website. I myself have barely dabbled, reading what I can and using my expertise in graphic design to sketch out some basic maps. I've been sitting on a finished map for a series of books for a while. I have a scale all set up, but with the map designed 180" x 110" (I'm ambitious), it's a right pain to grid the whole thing out and count the squares one by one to measure out the square miles of landmasses, islands, seas, etc.

In my naivety, I have to assume there is an easier way. Is there any program in existence that I could import an image into, set a scale and certain parameters, and have it do the grunt work for me? Or have I set myself a passion project with no foreseeable end?

Thank you so much, and I hope to be able to share my work with everyone very soon!