New to digital cartography

[AzureIsland]

I would love to engage with other cartographers and I really would like any and all tips. I have been mapmaking since I was a kid. I did hand drawings, many of which I still have.

Here's where I am at. I have a current map in the Paint program. It's very low end. I't a map with cities, towns, and their boundaries.

I want to do something high end like I have seen on here, but I don't know where to begin. I'm not super tech savvy, but I'm a quick learner and willing to try new things to see what works best. I want something with multiple layers. I want one layer for example to have streets and highways, all of which I would name. I want another layer to show the cities and towns and another layer to show the states. And I want mountains, lakes, etc. Any advice as to which program or programs might work best for me?

Having visited this site several times, I'm really impressed by the work you all do. You are some amazingly talented cartographers!

Thanks in advance for any advice!

[AzureIsland]

WHAT software is most used by the cartographers on this website? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

[ChickPea]

Hi AzureIsland and welcome to the Guild.

To answer your question, I would say the majority of guild members use either Photoshop or Gimp, with a smaller number using Campaign Cartographer or other image editors like Krita or Paint Shop Pro. If you can afford Photoshop, great! Otherwise, download Gimp for free. There are tons of Tutorials for Gimp and Photoshop, and not so many for other software, so it may well be worth while trying one of these applications to start. Take a look at this comment which contains tons of useful info on how to get going. You can also download PDF tutorials here to try out.

If you've never used an image editor like Photoshop/Gimp before, I'd suggest heading for YouTube and watching a few Beginner/Intro vids just to get a feel for the software and the basic tools. Both applications have layers, layer styles, filters and all sorts of other things!

I hope that's useful and look forward to seeing some of your work.

[AzureIsland]

Hi AzureIsland and welcome to the Guild.

To answer your question, I would say the majority of guild members use either Photoshop or Gimp, with a smaller number using Campaign Cartographer or other image editors like Krita or Paint Shop Pro. If you can afford Photoshop, great! Otherwise, download Gimp for free. There are tons of Tutorials for Gimp and Photoshop, and not so many for other software, so it may well be worth while trying one of these applications to start. Take a look at this comment which contains tons of useful info on how to get going. You can also download PDF tutorials here to try out.

If you've never used an image editor like Photoshop/Gimp before, I'd suggest heading for YouTube and watching a few Beginner/Intro vids just to get a feel for the software and the basic tools. Both applications have layers, layer styles, filters and all sorts of other things!

I hope that's useful and look forward to seeing some of your work.

Thank you so much for this useful information! I really appreciate it. Online, I stumbled across a program called Map Diva. Are you, or is anyone else familiar with this software? Thanks again!

[ChickPea]

Personally, no, I've never used Map Diva. Someone mentioned Ortelius the other day in this thread, though there wasn't any real answer about whether it's any good or not. I think there are far more PC users here, rather than Mac.

I see they have a trial version on their website, so why not just download it and give a go?

[AzureIsland]

Personally, no, I've never used Map Diva. Someone mentioned Ortelius the other day in this thread, though there wasn't any real answer about whether it's any good or not. I think there are far more PC users here, rather than Mac.

I see they have a trial version on their website, so why not just download it and give a go?

Thank you so much! I am learning so much here AND saving money!!

[ChickPea]

Haha, the best of all worlds!