You can switch on the sheet effects by opening the Sheets and Effects dialog |CC2SHEETS| and checking the Activate Sheet Effects box on the top right of that dialog. Click Apply, or Ok and you should see quite a difference in your map.

That's a pretty good first map, NicodemusRa :)

Only a couple of things I would recommend trying - to see if you think it improves the look or not.

Try adjusting the white glow around the map labels to make it smaller and more opaque, but keep the fade. It's not quite working to cut out the map detail right up against the letters. It's close, but it's not quite there.

Try reducing the size of the title just enough that the tops of the letters don't overlap the edge of the map.

There is a Live Mapping session Ralf did in 2020 showing how to create a floorplan map from a city building here. If this is the one you have already watched, I will look for another one, but this one is probably the best and most appropriate for the style you are using.

Have you thought of making the continent lines thin enough to match the average thickness of the ink in the mountain lines? That will make the coastline look less distinct, but you can counteract that by adding a Glow effect to the LAND sheet, set to Outer and a dark grey, so that the water is shaded away from the land a set distance all around.

I know the old 'I'll know it when I see it' issue. I have that myself quite a lot. So lets try to get the coastline looking good first, and then maybe you will have a better idea of what you want for the land.

Are you going to use this with a pure white background, or are you looking to add a subtle paper texture? A plain white background is what you want if you intend to use the map printed on paper, which will be its own paper background, but if you only ever intend to use it as an image file you might want to add the paper texture in.

Wonderful work, Wyvern :)

They're just too darn fast, Wyvern!

Thanks :)

I copied the existing land shapes to the COASTLINE sheet, and then hid everything but the land sheet and turned that solid white. With the COASTLINE in place there was no longer a need for the glow, so I switched it off, though it is still there in case you want it in the future.

I thought, but couldn't be sure, that there was a COASTLINE entity as well as a LAND entity in this style. It sounded like there should be. The drawing tool draws an identical polygon on both sheets. All I have done is replace the missing poly on the COASTLINE sheet.

Make a new sheet over the top of everything else (bottom of the list), then either import a seamless bitmap fill of your choice and draw a rectangle of it on that new sheet to cover the entire map, or import an image of parchment that is of a suitable size and resolution on that sheet.

Add a Blend Mode effect to the new sheet and set it to Multiply and 100% opacity.

If you have used an image instead of a seamless bitmap fill you will also need to use the DELAYDRAWSYM command and set it to zero, so that the Blend Mode effect works.

I really like the way you've done the town - great use of the structure symbols :)

That's actually a really cool idea, Remy...