r/cartography • u/Tedster42 • May 15 '24
What software/website should I use to make an OS-style map?
I'm looking to create an Ordinance Survey-style map of a fictional town but I can't find any software or websites that I can use to make a map of a fictional area in that style. Does anyone here have any tools I could use to help make one? Preferably, a website would be great, but if there is software for it then that works also. Thanks in advance!
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u/MrDowntown May 15 '24
That's a task for Illustrator (or Inkscape).
Since it's a fictional place, any workflow with GIS or a website like MapBox would require you to first create several layers of geodata, which would be pretty tedious.
Sketch your fictional town on paper and scan that, then trace over that sketch to create linework in various layer, such as contour lines, water bodies, railways, roads, buildings, labels. Use graphic styles to keep features consistent. A trunk road or dual carriageway may be a style that stacks up several strokes: the casing, the coloured line, the median. Similarly, a railway may be a dashed line atop a line the same colour as the ground atop a black casing.
You may find more advice about making maps of fictional places in /r/mapmaking.