Making fantasy map with GIMP and Inkscape

 According to wikipedia, "Fantasy cartography, fictional map-making, or geofiction is a type of map design that visually presents an imaginary world or concept, or represents a real-world geography in a fantastic style".

This kind of map is commonly used in games and films. Let's see how we can make one using the GIMP and Inkscape tools.

Creating a fantasy map typically involves a combination of drawing, texturing, and designing elements such as landmasses, rivers, mountains, cities, and labels. I will use GIMP for drawing and texturing and Inkscape for converting the texture to outlines, adding labels and vector-based elements. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to create a fantasy map using these tools:-

Step 1: Draw texture in GIMP

The first step is to launch GIMP and Generate Random noise. To do this go to the menu: Filters >> Render >> Noise >> Solid Noise 

This will result in a heatmap, we then turn the heatmap into coastline map using the "Threshold tool". The 'Threshold tool' can be accessed from the menu 'Colors >> Threshold'

Adjust the threshold as you wanted, then export the final result as a PNG image.

Step 2: Vector drawing in Inkscape

Import the saved image into inkscape and complete the vector art. Firstly, right-click on the image and use the 'trace-bitmap' to convert it to vector object.

This will produce the outline map as expected and this is where we can add other vector elements on the map.

That is it!