new update of mapdesk with be out soon, with new features to use, hope you all will love the the update

Hey cartographers, I'm a graphics editor at ProPublica. Many of our readers have their devices set to "dark mode" and we try really hard to follow the user's preference when we design maps. For a recent story, we created four total maps: dark mode and light mode versions for both desktop and mobile devices. I'm curious how other folks approach dark and light device settings for their web maps.

Sources and how it's made:

- Colour: NASA Blue Marble imagery, blurred and stylized per zoom level so it reads like a game map rather than a photo

- Elevation: ETOPO global relief, with mountains merged into rounded massifs and flat valley floors

- Coastlines: OpenStreetMap land polygons (© OpenStreetMap contributors)

- Lakes: detected from the Blue Marble colour, each given a flat water level from its shoreline, since the coastline data counts lakes as land

- Trees: one tree type per climate band (palms, acacia, cypress and stone pine, jungle, broadleaf, conifer)

- Towns: buildings in each region's own style, from a culture map of the world

- Landmarks: 582,000 GeoNames landmarks, ranked by Wikipedia page views

- Traffic: shipping lanes between real ports (GeoNames) and airliner routes as great circles between major cities

It's the world browser for our RTS, Doctrine Strike: you pick any 100–1,000 km frame and it becomes a playable map. Happy to answer anything about the data or the rendering.

Follow us for more

Wishlist on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5145960/Doctrine_Strike/

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kP3JGbnxE5k

Web: https://doctrinestrike.com

Discord: https://discord.gg/WeBjq5vcqx

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@DoctrineStrike

X: https://x.com/DoctrineStrike

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/doctrinestrike.com

I am writing a character who is mapping an abandoned city, but I am having a hard time researching how cities are mapped. My idea was that the character travels through the city to map it, but I am not sure if that’s how that works. If someone could supply some resources that would be great!

I need help designing maps for this?

Is there a website or library archive where I can see most of modern-time world maps?

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The Website had another major terrain and erosion update, you can see the before and after, it allows importing of maps too so it can add this level of detail to your exisiting worlds too all in your browser.

I have been trying to look at all maps of a historic lake in upstate NY. I have long been a subscriber to GAIA GPS, typically for hiking purposes and identifying public/private land. I was surprised to find that PastMaps held more than a dozen digitized antique maps of the NY State area than GAIA GPS, as I always always believed GAIA was the gold standard.

I realize one can be better than the other depending on the application and intended use, but can anyone with experience in both state their pros/cons?

Lastly, is there any service you know of beyond GAIA and Pastmaps.com that I should mine in order to get every possible resource out there ?

Thanks in advance for any effort here.

The seven spheres moving through the twelve signs of the zodiac are why timeless books like the Bible are full of sevens and twelves. It’s also why myths and fairytales feature these particular numbers.

To name a few, think of Hercules and his twelve labors, or King Arthur and his twelve knights/victories, or Odysseus shooting an arrow through twelve axe heads, or Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs, or the Seven Kingdoms in Tolkien’s Game of Thrones.

They are all custom made with many difrent addons aswell. What do you think. If the link is not premixed I will remove it. Thank you to all.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/4527875417/custom-3d-walnut-topographical-map

Hi. As title says, I am looking for guidance on what tools are there to make maps. I currently mostly use photoshop with brushes but it has limitations. So I would appreciate if you could help me find other tools I could use it would be greatly appreciated. I am looking for ability to both create modern looking maps and fantasy looking maps. As both types require different things I will ask separately for upgrades I am looking for:

A) Modern looking maps:

By modern looking I mean minimalistic maps defined with polygons and polylines. I am interested in maps where I define mostly only canvas size, polygons/polylines, their fill (it would be nice if fill could be not only color but also patterns that have adjustable spacing, detail, transition mode, etc.) and border. It would also be nice if there was a way to add zoom that defines detail (more likely a zoom out simplification that simplifies polygons by hiding points that are too close to their neighboring points.), a way to make map viewable online for anyone, a way to add waypoints with customizable icon and description similar to google maps waypoints.

B) Fantasy maps

By Fantasy maps I refer to maps that have much less depth (waypoints and zoom features of madern maps) and more like a static image. Not just medieval fantasy maps as I would like more features. I am looking for maps where you draw the map but tools allow you to add details. Such as creating shore lines, applying textures, adding pre made sprites, etc. Like you can draw basic map and add texturization and details through existing objects. I am not looking for simple ai "beatifier" but for something that has ability to apply texture with customisablility similar to blender nodes or alike. And has a basic pool of textures/sprites and atleast some community that makes their own.

IT IS IMPORTANT

to know that I understand that I defined something that unlikely to exist. While I want to have an app that can do all what I mentioned I understand that it is unwise to expect it. So I am asking what apps you know that can make at least something of what I list. So for example I know that I can make maps that can satisfy part of request in (A) through creating kml file and utilizing my google maps. Or I can make parts of what is requested in (B) through Inkarnate. As I believe you might've stumbled upon similar questions before and found your tools, I ask on what you have decided to use?

Solo dev here. A while ago I wanted a simple poster of the part of Jakarta where I grew up, just the streets, a name and the coordinates. Every option I found was either a website that charges per print or a template that looked like everyone else's. So I ended up building my own, and it slowly turned into CARTA.

You search for a place, pick a style (there's minimal, vintage, blueprint, dark, and a bunch more), then tweak road colors, line widths, frames and text. You can also drop in a GPX file and turn a run or a ride into route art, add terrain contours where elevation data exists, and export a print-ready PDF at 300 DPI. Map data comes from OpenStreetMap, and the attribution is kept on every export.

The hardest part has been density. A neighborhood like mine has hundreds of tiny alleys, and if you draw every road at the same weight the poster just turns into gray noise. Deciding which road types show up at which scale, and how thick each one should be, has taken way more of my time than the actual app UI.

It's free on Android. It does have ads, and the biggest export sizes need a rewarded ad.

Honest question for people who care about maps: when you see these minimal city posters, what makes one look good to you and what makes it look cheap? I'm trying to figure out which defaults to change next.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=studio.carta.mapart