2 replies to this topic

[travoholic]

Hello,

I'm new to this site and totally new to making maps. I've taken on a bit of an ambitious project - I live in Kigali, Rwanda and would like to make a fun, artistic map with roads and all that fun stuff but also with advice and tips included on the map, as well. Bug project but I'm well on my way with the design.

I'm having problems figuring out what size of paper to print this thing on. A2 seems too small and A1 too big. The printers here in Rwanda aren't of a very good quality and don't have any other options for paper size. I really need to figure out what size my map will be before I can lay things out and move forward.

I might end up printing the map either in Uganda (apparently quality there is much better) or in the UK. I'm guessing nobody will be able to tell me much about printing in Uganda :-) so I guess I'm looking for UK printing advice, standard page sizes etc.

I think B2 would be the perfect size but I'm not sure how common this size is. Plus I'd like to print on glossy paper, right to the edges and also figure out some sort of good way to fold this thing up. Knowing where the fold marks will be will be another important factor in my layout.

Lots of questions but I really need some help figuring this stuff out.

Thanks in advance!
Kirsty

[frax]

Good luck! I don't have much to offer in tips, but it sounds like quite a project - would love to see some of it when it nears completion.

[P.Raposo]

Hi Kirsty,

There are lots of practical considerations you may or may not already be looking at for paper size, like price, how many folds it requires to make a portable size (if it's big enough to need folding), and standard paper sizes internationally, or wherever you're planning to distribute the map (in Rwanda?), etc.

Another important consideration, though, is what/where you're mapping, and at what scale, and if it's a big enough place (i.e., a whole country?), possibly what map projection. Those determine how much surface area you need. In the process of designing, you might alter page size to meet your area requirement, or you might change map scale to meet your paper size requirement. The same set of considerations comes into play when you consider how much space you need for all your map features and labels, etc.

Hope that's helpful! Good luck and have fun!
P