I've never bothered to really dig into mapping programs, and figured someone may have checked it out?
There are numerous CC2 GH maps out there, some even used to be on the ProFantasy web site, but to date they just haven't impressed me like Eric, Denis, and TalMeta, Darlene, etc. _________________ Allan Grohe (grodog@gmail.com)
http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/greyhawk.html
Well let me be the first to put in my two copper...
ProFantasy and their CC2 programs has major advantages and disadvantages when you are looking to produce your maps.
Advantages. They are relatively easy to use for the novice, although the manual is very thick. You can also produce many maps quite quickly using the predefined styles and features. There are also many websites out there with help and hints (check out the Harn mapping project as an example). All in all it is a sort of Lego-method of making maps.
Disadvantages.CC2 is loosely based on an AutoCAD platform, and as a professional cartographer I can honestly say that AutoCAD is the most unuser-friendly software I have ever used. I also dislike the "cartoony" feel to a lot of the CC2 pre-defined images and think their quality could be improved. I assume that the very thick manual might help remedy this with guides to produce your own styles, but it is so thick that I used it as a thing to put my tea cup on. There is also a lack of flexibility to the software, I was unable to produce vinettes, textured fills, halo effects and hold outs for my maps.
Err from that rant you can see that I dislike the software, even though I spent alot of cash on it I almost immediately uninstalled it and went back to more appropiate software. However, for the casual user it may be the answer to the eternal problem of mapping their campaigns.
Hope this helps. _________________ The only Good hobbit is a well-done hobbit.
If you're looking for advice on designing maps and what the various map-making program choices are out there, check out my "Guide to RPG Map Making" at http://melkot.com/mechanics/map-guide.html
I'm guessing that the "Tome of Ultimate Mapping" (which is what grodog was asking about) is very specifically an instruction manual for CC2 and nothing else. How much practical advice it contains for general wanna-be-cartographers? I have no idea. Someone who has picked it up will have to speak up.
Denis, aka "Maldin, the Cartographer and Sage"
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Maldin's Greyhawk http://melkot.com/
Check out the ton of edition-independent material on my website
Thanks Denis. I hadn't seen your mapping advice page before.
I've got some b&w scans as .tifs from my Castle Greyhawk maps that I want to tidy up in PhotoShop, but I've got some baseline limitations that I'm trying to work around (my father-in-law's scanner will only output b&w tiffs), in addition to my very-limited PS experience.
PS doesn't seem to want to let me color the maps, even by adding layers, in either .tif or .gif format (and it also doesn't want to let me save as a .jpg :/ ). Any ideas?
Your file is probably in greyscale (or even just black and white, i.e. duotone). If you change the image format to RGB (Image/Mode), you should be able to do anything to it (and also be able to save to any format). Try that and let me know how that works.
Denis, aka "Maldin"
==================================
Maldin's Greyhawk http://melkot.com/
Check out the ton of edition-independent material on my website
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