diopside Posted August 27, 2020 Posted August 27, 2020 I'm curious if anyone else out there is using Affinity products for making maps? These days , probably >95% of cartographers make their maps almost entirely within GIS software, but I was always frustrated by the limited options and lack of precision for controlling stylistic elements on maps in those software suites (both QGIS and ArcGIS), so I figured why not outsource the styling to Affinity products For those unfamiliar, mapmaking is not unlike standard graphic design. You have a document comprised of a bunch of different layers, some of which can be vector (like road lines, point data, etc.) and some of which can be raster (like elevation maps, aerial imagery, etc.). The only real difference is they are all encoded with spatial information. So what I started doing is using the GIS software just to compile and size (spatially aware trim/crop) all my different layers of geographic data, and then exporting a bunch of identically-sized layers that I then reassemble in AD / AP (i.e export a PDF of *just* the road lines, export another PDF of *just* the water body polygons, export a PNG of *just* the aerial imagery, etc.). As long as I maintain identical pixel dimensions for the exported raster layers, and identical aspect ratios for the vector layers, maintaining the appropriate map scale / size and reassembling the layers in AD/AP is trivial. Once I have all the data in AD/AP, I can take advantage of those graphic design features that GIS software could never hope to do, like advanced masking and layer blending modes, brush-based editing, pixel-perfect label placement (HUGE), etc. Another great thing is this method gives you ultimate control over design of the map frame and you're not stuck using the preset layouts and scalebars that are baked into GIS software suites. The included example is a map I made for my mother last Christmas of the area where her ancestors settled 150ish years ago. Its sort of like a modern take on the classic USGS topo map styles from the 50's-80's. (there are two typos I'm aware of, 'prairie' is misspelled in both instances, and 'convenience' is written as 'convenient' in the legend... if you see anymore, let me know!) cheers Celia at Grafted Works, etiennepisano2862, Wosven and 20 others 21 2 Quote
GarryP Posted August 28, 2020 Posted August 28, 2020 That’s really lovely work. Just out of interest, do you know about Assets (which are usable in all Affinity Applications) and Symbols (which can only be created in Designer)? I only mention them as not everyone knows about them, or what they do, and using a mixture of both Assets and Symbols might help to speed-up the creation of things like this (a bit). Quote
Staff Patrick Connor Posted August 28, 2020 Staff Posted August 28, 2020 Fantastic work, thanks for sharing. 12 hours ago, diopside said: if you see anymore, let me know! It may be an Americanism but I do not recognise the phrase "Geologic Survey" as I am expecting "Geological Survey", and Google agrees, but perhaps the results are biased by my UK location. Quote Patrick Connor Serif Europe Ltd Latest V2 releases on each platform Help make our apps better by joining our beta program! "There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self." W. L. Sheldon
StuartRc Posted August 28, 2020 Posted August 28, 2020 The map is absolutely fantastic...brilliant!....work...I like the technique.. Quote Affinity Version 1 (10.6) Affinity Version 2.5.7.2948 All (Designer | Photo | Publisher) Beta; 2.6.0.3125 OS:Windows 10 Pro 22H2 OS Build 19045.5371+ Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.19060.1000.0 Rig:AMD FX 8350 and AMD Radeon (R9 380 Series) Settings Version 21.04.01 Radeon Settings Version 2020 20.1.03) + Wacom Intuous 4M with driver 6.3.41-1
Oval Posted August 28, 2020 Posted August 28, 2020 13 hours ago, diopside said: mapmaking is not unlike standard graphic design If a designer would have done this, we’d see better typography, the same level of iconicity, … Move Along People 1 Quote
diopside Posted August 28, 2020 Author Posted August 28, 2020 6 hours ago, GarryP said: That’s really lovely work. Just out of interest, do you know about Assets (which are usable in all Affinity Applications) and Symbols (which can only be created in Designer)? I only mention them as not everyone knows about them, or what they do, and using a mixture of both Assets and Symbols might help to speed-up the creation of things like this (a bit). I'm not sure I know about "Assets" yet? But yes I do use symbols for all the icons and such! Thanks How would assets help me out? Quote
diopside Posted August 28, 2020 Author Posted August 28, 2020 3 hours ago, Oval said: If a designer would have done this, we’d see better typography, the same level of iconicity, … Ouch... thanks for your ... feedback? The fonts and their stylings are near exact copies of the typography used in old printed USGS topo maps. In fact, pretty much every aspect of the map is, except for the terrain basemap image that includes the aerial imagery - you won't see that on any old topo maps. Quote
diopside Posted August 28, 2020 Author Posted August 28, 2020 5 hours ago, Patrick Connor said: Fantastic work, thanks for sharing. It may be an Americanism but I do not recognise the phrase "Geologic Survey" as I am expecting "Geological Survey", and Google agrees, but perhaps the results are biased by my UK location. No, you're probably right. Formally that's always how its written, I should probably change that. I only hear 'geologic survey' here used by geologists in an informal way. But the LPGS is a made up organization anyway I was using an old USGS topo map frame as reference, and that's where they had their organization name spelled out, so I figured i'd put something similar there for fidelity, lol. Quote
Alfred Posted August 28, 2020 Posted August 28, 2020 1 hour ago, diopside said: I was using an old USGS topo map frame as reference Hmm. It does seem that the United States Geological Survey produces “standardized geologic maps”! Go figure, as they say. https://www.usgs.gov/products/maps/geologic-maps Patrick Connor 1 Quote Alfred Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.5.1 (iPad 7th gen)
diopside Posted August 28, 2020 Author Posted August 28, 2020 1 hour ago, Alfred said: Hmm. It does seem that the United States Geological Survey produces “standardized geologic maps”! Go figure, as they say. https://www.usgs.gov/products/maps/geologic-maps Well if Americans are known for taking certain liberties with the english language, i think us geologists might be some of the worst of the bunch! Even among scientists they are infamous for making up / mutating words ad-hoc to describe things. Alfred 1 Quote
Renzatic Posted August 28, 2020 Posted August 28, 2020 You have the skills of a master, and probably the patience of a saint. Great job! Also, since we're on the subject of American English vs. English English here, the way the UK folk (and Australians to a slightly lesser extent) throw those totally superfluous letter U's into all their words makes me so mad. Armour, Colour, Toumaeto, Aeropluane. You don't pronounce them, so why are they there for? Are they flavor letters? Comeon. And don't even get me started on gaol... Alfred 1 Quote
Alfred Posted August 28, 2020 Posted August 28, 2020 12 minutes ago, Renzatic said: You have the skills of a master, and probably the patience of a saint. Great job! Or to put it another way, the skills of a master and the patience of Job. Renzatic 1 Quote Alfred Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.5.1 (iPad 7th gen)
MikeW Posted August 28, 2020 Posted August 28, 2020 30 minutes ago, Alfred said: ... and the patience of Job. Yeah, but... ὑπομονή, as used in the KJV bible, is not translated well. A better concept would be endurance. If one reads the book of Job, he is far from being patient during what he endured... Renzatic 1 Quote
Alfred Posted August 28, 2020 Posted August 28, 2020 20 minutes ago, MikeW said: A better concept would be endurance. Yeah, but (as somebody famous once said)... That doesn’t help with the wordplay! MikeW 1 Quote Alfred Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.5.1 (iPad 7th gen)
GarryP Posted August 29, 2020 Posted August 29, 2020 @diopside Assets can be thought of as your own ‘stock items’ and, as such, can be used in multiple documents simply by dragging them from the Assets Panel into your document as required. For example, all of your map symbols – Church, State Highway Marker, etc. – can be Assets which you can drag out when needed without having to copy/paste them from another document. Note that Assets are ‘fixed’ and – unlike symbols – will not automatically update if you change one but once you have dragged an Asset to your document you can make that a Symbol and update all the duplicate symbols – in that document – at the same time (if you want to). One further note: An Asset can be created in, for example, Photo which uses a Photo-specific feature – e.g. Live Filter – and then that Asset – including the ‘extra’ functionality – can be used in Designer. This way you can use Photo-specific functionality in Designer, up to a point. You don’t need to use Assets if you don’t want to but if you find yourself using the same things in multiple documents then you might want to think about using Assets to make that easier. DEWLine 1 Quote
Alfred Posted August 29, 2020 Posted August 29, 2020 7 minutes ago, GarryP said: Note that Assets are ‘fixed’ and – unlike symbols – will not automatically update if you change one Assets are fixed if the ‘stock items’ that you add to the Assets panel are fixed, but you can add Symbols to the Assets panel. GarryP 1 Quote Alfred Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.5.1 (iPad 7th gen)
Oval Posted August 29, 2020 Posted August 29, 2020 On 8/28/2020 at 6:01 PM, diopside said: The fonts and their stylings are near exact copies of the typography used in old printed USGS topo maps. A designer (of maps) does not only use fonts. Here: Foreigners do not know if there are three or two words because of the bad text on path. Just this one example for those who are unfamiliar with design. Quote
diopside Posted August 29, 2020 Author Posted August 29, 2020 4 hours ago, Oval said: A designer (of maps) does not only use fonts. Here: Foreigners do not know if there are three or two words because of the bad text on path. Ah! That's constructive criticism. The first comment just seemed vaguely dismissive. I agree the labeling of the minor hydrological features could be vastly improved. For the longer paths I think I need to stop at a reasonable upper limit for the letter spacing and just increase the word spacing more to compensate Quote
diopside Posted August 29, 2020 Author Posted August 29, 2020 11 hours ago, GarryP said: @diopside Assets can be thought of as your own ‘stock items’ and, as such, can be used in multiple documents simply by dragging them from the Assets Panel into your document as required. For example, all of your map symbols – Church, State Highway Marker, etc. – can be Assets which you can drag out when needed without having to copy/paste them from another document. Note that Assets are ‘fixed’ and – unlike symbols – will not automatically update if you change one but once you have dragged an Asset to your document you can make that a Symbol and update all the duplicate symbols – in that document – at the same time (if you want to). One further note: An Asset can be created in, for example, Photo which uses a Photo-specific feature – e.g. Live Filter – and then that Asset – including the ‘extra’ functionality – can be used in Designer. This way you can use Photo-specific functionality in Designer, up to a point. You don’t need to use Assets if you don’t want to but if you find yourself using the same things in multiple documents then you might want to think about using Assets to make that easier. Makes sense... I can already envision many contexts where I could use this. Thanks for the rundown Quote
diopside Posted August 29, 2020 Author Posted August 29, 2020 Here is another example in a similar vein. I started with an archival scan of a 1978 geologic(al) map of Nevada and used Affinity Photo to clean it up (removing stains, stamps, handwriting, stickers, etc.). Then I used Blender to render the map image onto a 3D mesh prepared from modern elevation data, followed by a final touch-up in Affinity Photo. Compare to the source image here: https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/Prodesc/proddesc_16377.htm I'm still experimenting with how to get my added / edited text to perfectly blend in appearance-wise with the older scanned text. I tried a combination of the slightest gaussian blur and outer glow effects. Its passable at a glance, but the difference is quite noticeable at higher zoom levels. SrPx, Wosven, GarryP and 2 others 5 Quote
LakeMonster Posted January 4, 2021 Posted January 4, 2021 I love your rail symbol! Did you successfully figure out how to draw rail lines in an easy way? I've been struggling with it a lot. I've been trying to duplicate ties along a text path but its finnicky at best. I assume there might be a way to make a brush that creates rail ties on a nice path but I'm less familiar with making brushes. Quote
McJimbo Posted March 12, 2021 Posted March 12, 2021 (edited) On 8/29/2020 at 5:38 AM, Renzatic said: You have the skills of a master, and probably the patience of a saint. Great job! Also, since we're on the subject of American English vs. English English here, the way the UK folk (and Australians to a slightly lesser extent) throw those totally superfluous letter U's into all their words makes me so mad. Armour, Colour, Toumaeto, Aeropluane. You don't pronounce them, so why are they there for? Are they flavor letters? Comeon. And don't even get me started on gaol... Ahem, what is a toumaeto? I think the word you're looking for is tomato - pronounced as tom-ah-toe, not tom-ay-toe as you American chaps do. As far as I'm aware no English speaking country spells aeroplane with a U. The U is generally only used as in colour and armour. There are hundereds of words with silent letters, why should poor old U cop such a pounding? I think it's just because Americans are too lazy to make the effort and write an additional character... 😉 Edited March 12, 2021 by McJimbo Quote
Renzatic Posted March 12, 2021 Posted March 12, 2021 12 hours ago, McJimbo said: I think it's just because Americans are too lazy to make the effort and write an additional character... 😉 You may call it lazy, but we call it what it is: BRUTAL LINGUISTIC EFFICIENCY! 😠 omg tmi olol Quote
Celia at Grafted Works Posted March 19, 2021 Posted March 19, 2021 Lovely map! I've been wanting to make some fantasy-style maps for people as gifts in Designer at some point. As far as the difference in spelling... There's a more passive aggressive reason for the different spellings. The short version: When compiling his American dictionary, Noah Webster chose spellings not typically used in British spelling. (Although British spelling wasn't entirely standardized back then anyway, which probably made it easier for him to pull this off.) He did this to differentiate American English from British English. And our language has had this contrived divide in it ever since. Some will argue that Webster merely chose spellings that he personally preferred, but Webster was a smart guy, close to the founders, and my opinion is that he did nothing without consideration. I mean, there's not much that's less random than a guy cataloging an entire language. It requires mad organization, attention to detail, and frankly, obsession. Anyway, I still prefer "grey" to "gray." And the u's don't bother me at all. But then, I'm an English lit major. Renzatic 1 Quote 2019 MacBook Pro 16” | Affinity Designer 2 | Affinity Photo 2 | Affinity Publisher 2 2018 iPad Pro 12.9” | Apple Pencil 2 | Affinity Designer for iPad 2 | Affinity Photo for iPad 2 | Affinity Publisher for iPad 2 With Affinity since 2018 ❤️ graftedworks.com FEATURE WISH LIST 🥚True Vector Brushes 🥚Vector Pattern Fill 🥚Studio Link in All Apps 🥚InDesign-level PDF Export
McJimbo Posted March 24, 2021 Posted March 24, 2021 On 3/13/2021 at 4:23 AM, Renzatic said: You may call it lazy, but we call it what it is: BRUTAL LINGUISTIC EFFICIENCY! 😠 omg tmi olol Now you're being ridiculously efficient! WTF does 'tmi olol' mean? Quote
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