Newby question.

How suitable would Inkscape be in the creation of map graphics for a travel guide?

The work entails taking a portion of existing maps that were scanned and saved as jpegs or gifs, usually in black and white, then manually tracing the portions of the map desired and adding simple lines and text. The resulting graphics will be laid out in InDesign with pre-written text.

I have tried using The Gimp, and while it is pretty simple to learn and use I have found the bitmap nature of the output unattractive for my needs.

The 90-page guide will have about 80 map graphics and be printed and freely distributed as a company promotion.

If you have any hints or suggestions of alternative programs that might be better suited I would be grateful.

Jim

It most certainly depends on how you visualize map output and what type of image format you need as the result.

Also, I`m not quite sure if I understood correctly explanation of your workflow. What does it mean:
"...then manually tracing the portions of the map..."
Usually, tracing refers to vectorization of raster image. Is that the case? If so, you need vector oriented software, which Inkscape is. On the other hand, Gimp is raster image oriented and that is why I have doubts in understanding your question.

I think Inkscape would be great for this! If you're in a great hurry, you might get acceptable results by using Inkscape's Trace Bitmap tool (automatically converts a raster image to vector) But I would otherwise recommend doing the tracing "by hand" using the Pen or Pencil tool.

I'm not familiar with InDesign, so I don't know if SVG can be imported. But assuming it can, I think Inkscape will give you much better results....especially for scalability.

(Maestral, I think Jim was saying that the raster format wasn't acceptable as far as appearance.)

Thanks for the responses. I appreciate the help.

Maestral wrote:Usually, tracing refers to vectorization of raster image.

Sorry for the confusion. Tracing to me just meant placing an image on a background layer, then drawing over it before deleting.

brynn wrote:I would otherwise recommend doing the tracing "by hand" using the Pen or Pencil tool.

That's what I thought as well. I am not in a big hurry, but I do need to settle on an "application" pretty soon so I know what I am up against, what needs to be learned, what problems to solve. Our shop is yery small and this is all new to us. I spent a lot of time with The Gimp, which is a fine program in a lot of ways, but I just decided the look was not right.

Guess I will jump in!

Bravery shall prevail!




I took a part in that confusion also, by forgetting not less usual as well basic meaning of the word "tracing".