Globe/Map building

[LunaticLooter]

Hello, everyone!
I hope this kind of post is okay here, as I'm looking for, I guess, something rather specific. What I'm trying to create is an editable/writeable version of the world map for the Pathfinder setting, named Golarion.

Okay, so I've googled for hours, and I'm about to have an aneurysm, at the least.

Basically, as a GM, I'd like to use some of the blank regions of Golarion to build my own kingdoms to fit within the world lore and everything.
But apparently, I can't do that. The basis for the blank areas is taken from the Golarion Geography project (located here). From there, you can actually download KML files, among others, to use in various types of software.

- Illustrator, which I own, is disappointingly useless in editing map files of any kind. Or I'm just too numbskull-y to figure it out. I could create a coastline image out of the original Golarion map, but it'll look low-res and.. bad. I don't think any software can load a custom .kml or .shp file to edit directly?
- Google Earth can load the files, but can only place them on top of the real world, seemingly, which is maddeningly unhelpful.

So my question is, of course, has anyone succesfully made an editable version of the Golarion world map, without spending hundreds of dollars on new maybe-unusable software?
I do remember Anna B Meyer's amazing Greyhawk map, which could be downloaded and edited with Adobe's software. Obviously that's taken half a life for her to make, so she hasn't created one for Pathfinder.
Obviously, I don't mind spending money on software that is useable for this. But I need to know, without a shadow of a doubt, that said software is -actually- useful.

[Redrobes]

I believe that QGis can import KML files and convert them into other more useful types such as Shapefile of which QGis can render and edit no problem. From a quick bit of googling, I think GDAL is a tool set and a utility which can also convert the file too. Both of these are free but QGis is particularly powerful as the OpenSource and Free version of ArcGIS which is the de-facto professional map making app which has a very powerful and complete toolset. We have a fair few users of QGis on this site but not many ArcGIS due to the extreme price that they want for that app. But once you have it in shapefile I think you can use inkscape as well to edit the vectors but you have Illustrator which is similar vector editing software. I too, personally, don't like to edit vectors for making maps and find it a bit too tedious. Vectors have some advantages over raster but raster bitmaps have many advantages over vectors too. In most professional maps the accuracy is more important than the look and so vectors usually win, but over here in fantasy land the look has more importance. Within a limited level of accuracy the two can be made inter-changable.

But in short look out for QGis and try it.
https://www.qgis.org/en/site/

Edit: Ahh I didnt know this but QGis uses GDAL to import the various formats and here is the list of them which does indeed include KML:
https://gdal.org/drivers/vector/index.html

[Styescape]

I totally agree, QGIS might be the best open-source option to deal with that. It might help, as Redrobes said, to convert data and work with other software to make your map. But you are also able to do fantasy mapping with QGIS itself. Therefore have a look at this tutorial: https://rossthorn.github.io/fantasy.html

If you want to combine it with some raster maps or use QGIS to manage your maps, locations and informations for your roleplays, you can have a look at my beginner tutorials: https://www.cartographersguild.com/s...ad.php?t=46205

There might be many other tutorials for other purpose out there of course. QGIS is very popular in different sectors and you should find most information in the internet. If you want to get in touch with QGIS completly, I recommend the Training Manual (https://docs.qgis.org/3.10/en/docs/training_manual/) which guides you through main features step-by-step.

[LunaticLooter]

Many thanks! QGis does indeed seem to be what I'm looking for.
I'll work through the tutorials and see what I can come up with. Once again, thanks =)