It was this that confused me, which seems to be talking about the size of the world, but I understand you now. That's good then, and it makes the colours a little less of a problem, actually.
You mean a way to 'lighten/soften' all of the colours at once? I'm not sure how GIMP handles layers, and if you even used them. But, in photoshop I would do this;
Again, that's if you've used layers for different components of the map (which I'm sure GIMP can do). Also, though this is for photoshop, I am sure there will be GIMP equivalents to all of these options.
- Add a new layer
- Fill it white
- Set the opacity somewhere between 10 - 30%
- Move it so that it is above the coloured regions, but below borders and text
You can merge the layers. But that changes the text to pixels, so it can no longer be edited as text.On layers: there must be a 'merge layers option' in GIMP? Or at least, a folder system (where you can add all of the text into a 'text' folder). I know you can in Photoshop, and you should be able to in GIMP.
The newest version of Gimp should be able to do that. It was a long requested feature and IIRC they (the Gimp devellopment team) said it would now be implemented.Can you not group multiple layers into a folder, and apply universal effects and properties?
The most flexibility you have with general graphic programs. You need an idea about how your map should look like and maybe a good tutorial for that style.Do you guys know of any other programs that are good for map making. (excluding the ones already discussed.)
As Hans mentioned, there are a bunch. I wanted to use InkScape, but it crashes on my Mac.
Had that problem, too… you need to be running the X11 environment, if you aren't already.
Every tool you might use as powerful or specialized it might be is still a tool. A program where you press two or tree buttons and have the perfect map does not exist. Can not exist, because everyone has different expectations for that "perfect map". There is no way around learning to use the tools and putting a little work into map making.
I've seen some "fully automated city/island/whatsoever" generators. But found all of them lacking. Maybe my expectations are to high. Normally I have an idea about what I want to create, but if the tool is really full automated there is no way of telling the tool that.
The most flexibility you have with general graphic programs. You need an idea about how your map should look like and maybe a good tutorial for that style.
In this thread we mainly had pixel graphic tools but many people swear on vector graphics for maps.