11 replies to this topic

[raynorfan]

Need some help reproducing the rippled effect shown here in this old map.

I've tried a few things in Illustrator and Photoshop, but no luck.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Charles Syrett]

I did this just a few days ago, in FreeHand: http://www.mapgraphi.../NYCDec1007.pdf
I'm not familiar with Illustrator, but I believe it has something like Object>Path>Outline stroke, that does something similar -- though I don't know that it does any more than one stroke at a time. If you want, you can send me the Illy, and I can do it for you in FreeHand and then send it back in Illy again.

Charles Syrett
Map Graphics
http://www.mapgraphics.com

Need some help reproducing the rippled effect shown here in this old map.

I've tried a few things in Illustrator and Photoshop, but no luck.

Any help would be appreciated.

[MapMedia]

I have been experimenting with a different type of coastal effect, more 16th century, still needs perfecting Example.

What I think you may have to do is create a separate coastline that is more complex (more vertices) and has many small distortions, and use it to create the buffers in GIS or Illy. Then you could try some minor warp effects. As you can see in your example, the coastline is urban and relatively clean, big piers etc., but the 'ripple' effect is more complex. So to have this automated in Illy or Freehand, as opposed to hand drawing, you would have to have a 'twisted sister' coastline to render from.

[CHART]

I would guess that the map shown was hand drawn.

Depending on the size of your map you could try hand drawing the ripple effect off a paper (or mylar) print using a fine ink pen. The source of your plot being the water areas boundaries.

Once completed you could scan the results and integrate the raster with the Illy file. If you want the line work in a vector format you could 'live trace' it.

From looking at the map shown, I don't see how you could get the EXACT same results from a digital process. Although Charles' example is pretty close and really neat.

[Jean-Louis]

I agree with jacques.
The point of creating these type of effects is their imperfect hand-drawn nature. I have tried all sorts of fancy digital shortcuts but always found that the simplest and easiest to do hand drawn effect is always to do it by hand on a piece of paper and then scan it in. And then follow the various options that Jacques suggests. I hope you will post your results and tell us if you find new technique.

PS. One tricky thing about adding scanned stuff is the fit. The simple solution is to work in Raster (photoshop) size as. Print off a desktop the section you want. Use that printed page as a template. Do your hand stuff on an transparent sheet over it. then scan what you did. It will drop in and fit with a minimum of tweaking.

PPS. When adding linework, your scanned immage will appear on a white background. Contrast the image. select the white and clear. Put in a blue temp layer behind your linework to see if all the white has been removed

[MapMedia]

I mentioned hand drawing too, but I think raynorfan was asking for a software solution, and not an exact replicate, which could be drawn by someone with basic drafting skills and a lot of patience.
If the map size is less than 12"x12" you could get away with a software solution, but if it is to be blown up, say for an exhibit or kiosk, I would hand draw it, or pay someone more capable to do that for me.

[natcase]

MapMedia is on the right track, about creating a separate coastline (or coastlines) for this effect. You would then be able to get rounded inline effects even when the coastline is squared (see Charlie's example). I think you also get this if you set the mitre type in the lines palette to round. The extra infill in the mapyou are trying to reproduce is really a quick fix... the engraver ran out of space using the overall shape he/she was trying to make, and had to backfill.

Hmm, the original image seems to have disappeared...

See also the antiquing effect Dave Barnes did with Arc, using multiple pattern fills: there's a picture here, and prior Cartotalk discussion here

[CHART]

I agree, Chris might be on the right track... but where is the results of the method proposed. Only Charles has a real 'look close to' digital solution of the desired results. It would be nice to have a digital procedure that can duplicate this type of 'vignette' (maybe it exists). In the meantime the manual approach seems the best alternative. (if time is one your side and the map is relatively small...)

Regards,

[DaveB]

I agree, Chris might be on the right track... but where is the results of the method proposed.

Scroll down to the second map

I love old maps and so this is an area that interests me. True, digitally generated techniques so far fall somewhat short of truly emulating hand-drawn (or hand-etched) maps (although we/they're getting closer). On the other hand, some of the digital maps, like Charles' example or some of the maps Nick has done, look great as they are. I don't think they necessarily have to incorporate handmade irregularities to look good.

As for the original question, I think you could start by making a coastline that has some effect applied to make it wavier, buffer that, symbolize the buffer with an outline and then maybe add some sort of "cloud" raster image with transparency on top to make the lines fade in and out a bit. Just kind of thinking out loud here.

Not to put down truly hand-drawn maps (the good ones are works of art), but the advantage of digital techniques is repeatability (I guess some people might call that a drawback ). Once you have a technique worked out it can be readily repeated for multiple maps by various people. Hand-drawn maps have their place (as it were ) and charm and I think/hope that will never go away.

[MapMedia]

My example wasn't an illustration of the general approach I offered out-of-hat to to the original question. Not many of us have time to create a method AND make a map of it for every how-to post that comes across, so I hope raynorfan (you still with us? Maybe your using your time to work on your map which is probably more productive) can make something of the general approach ideas as well as the step-by-step posts. Both are of value I think.

[CHART]

Ok not great but it is all digital (Illustrator).

Offset path at various offset distances starting with shorter intervals close to the coastline. (e.g -.03 to -.075) Depending on the units you use.
Add anchors points to yours offset lines (3 times should be ok). (Trial and errors here.)
Simplify the offset lines at about 98%. You can use a higher percentage for the offset lines farther away from the coastline .(trial and error here again)
You can remove some of the spikes with the remove anchor points.

Chris maybe Rayno... left us. Thought I would give it a shot.

Attached Files

•  Old_Style_Vignette.jpg   42.31K   100 downloads

[sitesatlas]

Here is the result of creating buffers from the Boston coastline in Manifold. Since the shoreline is so jagged, the buffers create a bit of a ripple effect. That doesn't provide a solution for straighter coastlines, though.

Attached Files

•  Buffers.gif   92.94K   107 downloads