I forget where I read it and don't recall all the rules about it, but I recall seeing something about placing names on a map and readability. One of the things I remember is that major places like cities are larger font size then the surrounding towns, and there is some space around the important points. Even if there is something there that needs to be labels, it shouldn't be labels because it would interfere with the major label. As you zoom in, more labels appear to provide the more information for those places closer to the center. It was using how Google Maps labels things as an example because it a very readable map.
This is one of the reasons I'm doing my maps in FT3 and CC3. It allows me to easily develop different maps at different zoom levels and link them together. Plus, I can then package up all the maps and documents I write up for the world, and anyone can browse through it with their free viewer software. You could do something similar using free tools such as Inkscape, Gimp, and generating a webpage with hyperlinked area maps (assuming you are familiar with HTML. If you want to get really fancy, you can even generate Google Maps files and make a Maps version of your world. However, that is even more complex and I'm not sure what all would be required to do that.
I read through Elantris and the Mistborn trilogy while waiting on Brandon Sanderson to finish up book 14 of Wheel of Time. He had taken over the series after Robert Jordan died and I was out of books to read in that series, so I decided to pick up some of his stuff to see how it was. The Mistborn world is awesome. I even got the Mistborn RPG book. Haven't run a game in it yet so can't really comment on the system, but love the world. There are suppose to be making a prequel video game that will be releasing sometime soon too.
This is one of the reasons I'm doing my maps in FT3 and CC3. It allows me to easily develop different maps at different zoom levels and link them together. Plus, I can then package up all the maps and documents I write up for the world, and anyone can browse through it with their free viewer software. You could do something similar using free tools such as Inkscape, Gimp, and generating a webpage with hyperlinked area maps (assuming you are familiar with HTML. If you want to get really fancy, you can even generate Google Maps files and make a Maps version of your world. However, that is even more complex and I'm not sure what all would be required to do that.
I read through Elantris and the Mistborn trilogy while waiting on Brandon Sanderson to finish up book 14 of Wheel of Time. He had taken over the series after Robert Jordan died and I was out of books to read in that series, so I decided to pick up some of his stuff to see how it was. The Mistborn world is awesome. I even got the Mistborn RPG book. Haven't run a game in it yet so can't really comment on the system, but love the world. There are suppose to be making a prequel video game that will be releasing sometime soon too.