Hello everybody!

[avalier]

Hi guys, and gals, my name is Kevin. I'm 27 and live in Colorado with my wife, 3 cats, and 2 dogs. I am completely new to cartography (as a skill) and am interested in it because i have tried hand drawing maps before and am never real pleased with how they turn out (been years since i drew one too). My interest in cartography now is that I am beginning a book based on the dungeons and dragons adventure my group is creating and am interested in creating a map for our new world. I ran across someone talking about campaign cartographer 3 and read a bit more into the discussion of one of his maps and found him mentioning the cartographers guild as well as GIMP and AutoRealm. I started doing research on all three and found CC3 to pricey for me (for now at least) and besides I like the level of control you have with programs such as GIMP/Photoshop and Inkscape. I have downloaded both Gimp and Inkscape because I like what i see with regards to being able to use both to create some really NICE maps and the price is right. (I prefer opensource software as is anyways just because i find its quality can sometimes be much higher because there is not really a big concern with advertising and pushing release dates and what not so more effort is put into making them the best possible by the developers.) Getting kinda long winded here so I'll try to bring this to a close. In essence I am a beginner and look forward to learning todevelop a new skill. any hints/tips/suggestions will be much appreciated and I look forward to working/talking/creating with you all.

[Aval Penworth]

Hey! Welcome to the guild. Look around, get involved, and you'll have a blast. Can't say I agree with you about open source having better quality...but it is great that it is free and available. I'm sure others will be along soon to welcome you too.

[mearrin69]

Heya. Welcome to the Guild! A lot of the folks on here use Adobe tools (I do) but there are also a good many Gimp and Inkscape users and there are a lot of tutorials made specifically for those tools and a lot of the ones that aren't can be used with some modification. Good luck with your "education"!
M

[jtougas]

Welcome. I also use GIMP and it's great software. It does have some limitations but I find that I have more limitations than the software.. looking forward to seeing your work..

[Steel General]

Welcome Aboard!

[NeonKnight]

Welcome to the Guild!

[Korash]

Welcome to the Guild. The Mappiest Place on the Web.

I can't believe that no one has pointed you towards our EXCELLENT Tutorial section yet.

If you scroll down on the main page, you will come to the Tutorial/How to forum. Below that there is a "How do I do...?" forum. Both of these are indescribably useful in learning your weapon of choice for mapping. Once you pick a tut, post a WIP (Work In Progress) in the appropriate forum and you will receive more than enough hints/suggestions/critiques to send on your merry way to creating awesome maps. Be not afraid of posting your early attempts, 'cause we are a friendly bunch and want to give Honest help.

Enjoy and have fun.