How do I make map templates?

[You kip if you want to...]

I've been wondering how people make templates for maps on this site. How's it done?

[Smid]

What sort of map templates?

[You kip if you want to...]

What sort of map templates?

Like the following:

[Sibboleth]

'ard graft, lad. 'ard graft.

[Sibboleth]

Seriously though, it depends what area you want to make blank maps of and how accurate you want the map to be.

[afleitch]

Seriously though, it depends what area you want to make blank maps of and how accurate you want the map to be.

True. There are great maps online that simply aren't editable. My own interest is Scotland of course and I used David Boothroyds maps. However a few months ago I decided to make my own from scratch



Essentially it's the same principle. I like white on black as it shows up colours better.

Other than that use Paint and have a steady hand

[Smid]

I normally find the Electoral Commission Maps section (of the relevant Commission), which is usually as a PDF. Then I use the "capture picture" tool in your standard Acrobat Reader to highlight the map. Then, since my computer has various spasms if I try to keep that much on the clipboard while opening Paint, I paste it into MS PhotoEditor and save it as a PNG. Then I can close the PDF and delete the clipboard and re-open the file in Paint. Then it's generally a relatively simple (but time consuming) task of using the zoom and pencil functions to draw the boundaries over the top of the ones that are already in your saved picture. It's not perfect, but it's pretty accurate. The main drawback is the length of time it takes to do it that way.