Resolution / pixels to start at

[Naen]

Hey all,

Newbie question here.
I’m planning for my first attempt at a start-to-finish digital attempt at map making and I wanted to ask what resolution people tend to use for producing a professional grade (something that could be in a book cover) reproducible map. What kind of pixel dimensions? How do you handle scalability if you use a raster program? I’m going to be using GIMP as it is what I have the most experience with.
How do you all handle this? In the past I have hand drawn, scanned, and then edited, but I want to try one start to finish on GIMP.
Sorry if this is covered before.
Looking up “resolution” in the search bar got me a lot of stuff.

[Chashio]

300 pixels per inch minimum is the standard desired end result... things usually look better when they're scaled down a bit so I often try to start larger to give some leeway.

[Azélor]

You can normally change the dpi at any time. It dosen't matter much unless you are printing on combining different elements. If they are at different dpi, the size will not match.

[jpstod]

I use CC3+
.... If the finished product is designed for a VTT I usually use 50 DPI
.... If the Finshed product is designed for Digital Display or "Printing" as is I use 300 DPI...
>>>>However if It it will be scaleable I goto 600 or 1200 DPI

[Mouse]

If you are thinking of doing a map for a book, or have been asked to do one, ask the publisher/printer what would be an ideal size, then work at something about twice that size and reduce it for printing. If you work more than 3 times the size be aware that any thin lines you might draw on the map will probably disappear altogether. There is such a thing as too much reduction.

If its just your own work and not for someone else, then work any size you want to work at. Everyone has different preferences. I prefer to work quite large and half the image size for upload here at the Guild. The upload limit is 9.4 MB, which is a pretty large map - especially if you use a compressed JPG. (I don't recommend more than 10% compression, or it starts to show as little boxy patterns in the relatively plain areas)

[Redrobes]

Mouses answer is the correct one. If someone else is going to print that book cover then ask them what requirements they need from you to make that happen. If you havent decided yet who is going to print the cover then get in touch with a few printers and get their requirements for it if you were to send them the business.

Normally that would be CMYK TIFF at 300 or 600 dpi. If your printing something like a poster then it may be that you can use 200dpi or less. If your printing a lot of text then you may need to supply a vectored format like postscript or encapsulated postscript or PDF file (which is basically postscript). You may want to ask about colour calibration profiles as well or else all your colours will come out incorrect.

I agree with the posters here who say that it is important to get this right at the start when doing a bitmapped format like an image. There is no dpi on vector format until you rasterize it at the end. Usually you let the printer rasterize a vector file so its never an issue. If you have bitmapped texture fill in the vector format then treat it as though it were a bitmapped format for that fill. I.e. make sure the fill is of the right dpi.

For my full answer see my tut:
https://cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=2596

[Naen]

Thank you all very much for your answers. I have a lot to learn but this gives me a starting place to begin to understand this better and do some reading to fully grasp all this information.
Thanks.