The ocean labels look much better this way, big improvement! I actually like this font now, tho I really think you need to make the big land labels solid as well, that outlined text simply isn’t working, and I think you’d be hard pressed to make it work.

I really feel like the big land labels need to be spaced out, so that they span across more of the land they are suppose to represent. If it were me I would put as much space between those letters as I could without of course going over board.

I’ve struggled with labelling over shaded relief before, I find it’s quite difficult to get the text to not appear as tho it’s floating on top, or getting lost between all the texture. I think this type of map really needs a little something extra with the labelling to get it to stand out against the busy terrain.

I think it’s entirely possible to get those big land labels to be a stand out part of this map, something that adds to the overall appearance of the map rather then taking away from it. Just look at Diamonds shaded relief style maps, he always manages to get the bigger labels to stand out, and sometimes has even used embossing to really make them pop.

I used an inner bevel on my Varenthia labels, then I rasterized the layer style, and also put in an outer bevel to make it seem like it was carved into the land only because any other plain font seemed to float above, or get lost in the relief, and it was a real struggle to find something that worked.

If nothing else, then I think you should at least make the big land font solid like you’ve done with the sea, maybe play around with some different colours, and definitely put some space between the letters...Sorry to be blunt but the bigger land labels kill this map for me, other then that it’s absolutely stunning, one of the nicer maps on the forum.

And I’m with ChickPea on you’re signature, I’ve been admiring you’re little lizard it’s really neat.