Vector (Blank) Map Thread

[Highlander]

I feel that we really need a blank map thread dedicated to maps that are good for being vectorized. These differ from what is considered normal blank maps in that it doesn't matter if they are slightly blurry, or not easy to edit in something like MSPaint, as they are basically used to help trace.

Starting off, here is a world map from the wonderful EdT.

 

[Highlander]

Still looking for exactly the ones I need (one is a map showing the eastern half of the Mediterranean, the other is of North America, but it looks like the outline got shifted during printing). In the meantime, here are some others.

 

[Communist Wizard]

Question: Do you trace them by hand, or do you have some magic tool to convert them to vectors? I'm guessing the former.

 

[Highlander]

Question: Do you trace them by hand, or do you have some magic tool to convert them to vectors? I'm guessing the former.

Yep, some of it is traced by hand; the rest is either drawn or traced from another map.

 

[Communist Wizard]

Yep, some of it is traced by hand; the rest is either drawn or traced from another map.

Ah, so the same thing as I do.
Also, your EdT World map is showing up as a "red x."

 

[Highlander]

I have been searching for this map ever since my computer crashed.

And now I have it. I can now start reconstructing what I had before.

 

[Thande]

That is a great map H'lander.

I get most of the ones I trace from this site, which I got from Susano.

 

[Highlander]

I get most of the ones I trace from this site, which I got from Susano.

Hah, that is actually where I got that map from. Wish I had had it from the beginning, would have saved me a whole lot of searching!

 

[Highlander]

Bumping this up so I can find it later, I have some more to post.

 

[NKVD]

The Wikimedia Commons has some good blank SVG maps. I'd suggest uploading whatever you might make to there. Depending on the copyright information on the maps you're tracing from, of course.

 

[LSCatilina]

I've some svg basemap, but without altitude if you're interested.

 

[Frige]

Related to vector mapmaking

How do people get their gridlines all accurate and globey? Is there some kind of magic way of scaling the curve?

I started doing one of Uriel's First World War scenarios in an atlas style, but I couldn't get my head around making the gridlines.

 

[rvbomally]

I've begun work on the top map. Here's what I have so far. It's not perfect, but it's my first time working with Illustrator.

 

[Nugax]

There are ways to automate vector map production of the coastlines, you just need to reduce the information content of the base map sufficiently for edge detection or trace bitmap functions to able to process it. For this kind of thing maps without text or grid-lines are necessary (though Gaussian smoothing out the grid-lines is possible on some base maps.

 

[Frige]

Still looking for exactly the ones I need (one is a map showing the eastern half of the Mediterranean, the other is of North America, but it looks like the outline got shifted during printing). In the meantime, here are some others.

Is it specifically an Early Modern map you need? I saved this for my tl. Found a nice Ottoman vector-map there on Wikipedia too. But you've probably already looked all over there. But it is surprisingly good for these kind of out of copyright maps.

 

[rvbomally]

Here it is, the finished map I was working on. It doesn't have rivers or longitude and latitude lines, and I'm sure I've made plenty of errors.

Download link