I'm bad at introductions.... Um hi?

[Ziggoulous]

I'm fairly bad at introductions. So I just want to say that I am 100% new to cartography. I have no idea how to make maps, use photo editors et. etc. I came to ask for some help to make a map of a fictional nation I created, but i suppose I should introduce myself before I ask for that.

My name is for the time being, Ziggoulous. You can call me Zigg or Ziggs if you'd like. Its an age old nickname that I've had. I live in California, and I have an affinity for politics. In fact, I have actually been looking to make a political map similar to something like this:

the-united-states-of-america-map.gif

I appreciate any help I could get for my project or some instructions or tutorials. Last but not least, I hope to have a good stay here at the Cartographers guild.

[Diamond]

Welcome aboard, Ziggs, always good to have another Californian here!

[jbgibson]

Hello Ziggs - welcome! I take it you mean like that one, only of your fictional place?

In some ways that style is easier than the more 'painterly' or hand-drawn looks. It's *particularly* easier if you build it as you dream up the landscape-- reproductions or versions of something already existing have to match, but the first time 'round any wiggle you didn't intend is just a different river or coastline or road, and just as valid as what you were shooting for.

If you want to build a modern atlas effect, at several scales, using vector software is appropriate. Zooming in on a raster original gets pixelated. But if you start at the largest scale (large scale = small area) and only ever zoom out, raster graphics would work. If you have no preconceived notion of what software to use, I'd suggest you try one or both of the most common/widespread free ones- The Gimp is raster graphics, and Inkscape is vector graphics. And if even that distinction is mysterious, the vector graphics Wikipedia article could help.

My forte is to ' " ' simplify ' " ' by adding words - I hope I haven't verbosed you to less clarity :-).

At any rate - ask questions, try tutorials, peruse a few thousand posts - that'll accelerate your CartoCreativity wonderfully. The folks here are a helpful bunch.