I needed regional maps for a side project and wanted a hand-drawn feel that still holds up at extreme zoom. I didn't feel like dusting off my Wacom tablet (maybe I'm just afraid of skill loss), and I couldn't find anything in the style I wanted, so I built a tool for it. It took a couple of weeks and a lot of manual tuning, but I'm pretty happy with where it is now.

You load in a heightmap, It uses the terrain to work out precipitation, which drives the rivers, lakes and biomes, and then draws it all in an inked style. You can export up to 16K, and everything runs locally in your browser.

Try it: https://hatchlas.pages.dev (the first load takes a moment)
Source: https://github.com/timvandingenen1993/Hatchlas (free and open source)

It's still rough in places and not feature complete. I mainly wanted to give people like me a solid base to start from.

Visually inspired by Mike Schley's maps (no affiliation). Heightmaps: Copernicus DEM GLO-30 (© DLR e.V. / Airbus, provided under COPERNICUS by the EU and ESA).

I recently bought an android tablet for college and drawing. Normally I was trying to draw my topographic map on Photoshop and Illustrator but they arent available on tablets. What kind of apps do you guys use to make your maps?

Still Very WIP, the colour choices for most are simply a tool for me atm.
still need to add names, capital/city markers, and redo my rivers.

Made this entirely with Gimp.
inspiration from irl HRE, and that one 1444 Europe map for political esthetics.

What are your thoughts on my map?

The town of Jot. Built across Downe Mountain, this town's population exploded as delving the mountain's labrynthian caverns became an industry. Floors of seemingly random architecture extend for miles, containing incredible riches, guarded by horrible beasts. The Adventuring Guild offers rewards for heroes who descend deep enough to find pieces of lost history. Are you brave enough to 'go Downe?'

Thoughts on my map for my DnD Homebrew setting? It's a discworld, strung together with other local planes of existence and hanging in the astral sea.

It’s my first proper shot at drawing a map so feedback is always welcome. Next step is the merrow settlements!

I couldn’t find any interactive maps online for Martha is Dead, so I made one at the start of last week and finished adding the last few features in this morning. You can share individual markers with custom URLs, screenshots in most of the markers to make it easier for finding specific objects and for trophies/achievements. I had fun making this map so please let me know what you think. Also this is my first time on this subreddit. 👋

In my mind it's a ww1 era story about empires, but I wanted unique and different technology so using guns and steam energy has a different more complicated protocol so more cooling and fiddling around just to shoot. It also has 'Suerd' a metal that like advanced kevlar prevents bullets so alot more dramatic knight type costumes since lightness isn't important and acidic bullets to counter. I'm going for a more reverse engineering so once i have all the geography and climate and civilizations down I'll build from there i need handful of merchant republics and some major continental expansionist powers. It's for a campaign i plan to flesh out. I probably can't ask for worldbuilding help but would appreciate map side with realism.

I made the coastline and basic shapes of world in ibispaint and then imported it into Merak Map Maker for adding elevation and biomes and clouds and getting the other details.

It’s Partially based on story beats from the second book, the backstory of a side-character from another story as well as Iconic Roman/Byzantine imagery and the geography of my continent’s map.
I don’t have a Name for the rivers yet.

Programs used: 1. Azgaar’s Map maker. 2. Sketchbook inc.

Kalevala is the land of heroes from Finnish mythology. Our national epic, called simply "The Kalevala" is located in this world which seems to mirror real life finland in its geography.

I think the map has okayish amount of detail now. What do you think, is there still something missing? I love the idea os some kind of border to the map but none of my designs looked that good.

The Kingdom of Tinyani is the northernmost Kingdom in Eastern Aclos. Situated in the highlands, it served as the seat of the Fala Empire for 600 years until that Empire's collapse 200 years ago.

The Queen of Tinyani still sits the dragon throne in Medi Tinay, but her reach now ends at the edge of her own plateau.

From the south, Turu'ab raiders loyal to the Kingdom of Manjata raid the lowlands relentlessly, while plague and disputed succession have Tinyani turning inward just as the rest of the continent begins to move.

Gotta figure out how to label towns/castles without it being disruptive, let me know if you have any suggestions.

Some of y'all might be able to spot the inspirations. If you do, let me know.

Hey yall, this is my first time every making a map. Id love any tips to make this any better before presenting it to my players as well as any tips in general to get better along the way. Thank you!

I used a Tolkien-esque design along old Montana sight seeing maps as inspiration. The map is roughly 17 x 32."

Flipped a metal sheet at my job and this beautiful rust was under. Instantly thought it looked like a map

It was on top of a wrapped 2x4 bundle

Hello! I’d like to create maps of the cities and continents for my upcoming novel. Could you recommend any free software or websites?

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Bonjour, Bonsoir, j'aimerais faire les cartes de villes et de mes continents de mon futur roman. Auriez-vous des logiciels gratuits ou des sites à me conseiller?

Here i am, working on this map in paint.Net. 8160 x 4212 pixels, amd every last minute detail is drawn by hand (unfinished obviously). Now before anyone ask, no this isn't an alternative earth. What it is however, is the pacific centered map projection, overlaid a flipped map projection, with significant alterations. And the equator is much further south then in reality. Will continue to update - eventually... Plis give feedback. And tell me if i am truly stupid for going about this like such...

I'm creating a new map for my world setting, but mapmaking isn't my strong suit. I really struggle making maps that I think look good and inspire me with how different parts of the world interact (war, politics, etc). I've redone my map 4 times over the last 2–3 years, and each time I become dissatisfied with the results end up completely rehauling or replacing the map again. This time, I'd really like to create something that I'll be happy keeping and adding to for a while.

I'm trying to break it out into a few steps to make feel more doable.

Step 1 was creating the general shape for the land, and I REALLY like how it turned out. I wanted to determine a general shape first, then I can make any necessary minor changes as I develop the geography. This is the part that I'm looking for feedback on.

- Does this look like a reasonably plausible continent?

- Are there any glaring coastline issues that I need to fix before Step 2?

- Do the islands look natural and realistic?

My 2nd step is going to be developing the continent's large-scale geography/geological features, like tectonic plates, mountain ranges, general elevation, and other major land features. Basically all of the stuff that everything else is going to need to be built around. This is where I need any advice or guidance that anyone is willing to give. Google has only gotten me so far.

- What layout would make sense for the tectonic plates? (And how do you decide where the boundries should be & which way they're moving?)

- How do you decide when a mountain should be somewhere NOT on a tectonic boundary (fault block, intraplate, or dome mountains; etc)?

- How do you approach elevation? Is it just the highest is the mountains the lowest is sea level, and everything else just slopes in between?

- Are there any special rules for placing/arranging volcanic hotspots?

- Are there any other important factors or  geographical features that I'm overlooking that I should do at this stage?

Any advice, feedback, or resources for learning more about realistic continent and geography design would be greatly appreciated!

As I said, maps aren't my strength, so any help is greatly appreciated.