The Art of Paul Söderholm Page 9

Bitmaps and vector maps

One of the more frequently needed graphics in the newspaper business are maps! Usually the maps have to be drawn from scratch since the "originals" that are sent out to media either have too low resolution or otherwise just look messy coming through the Fax. I have tried Illustrator and Freehand, and both are too complicated for me. I also used CorelDRAW but it takes ages to start up and can be quite slow compared to Xara X. So I kind of use them all. (I will tell you why in a moment).

So, when a map is needed, I usually get a scan of some kind of the mapped area needed. I import the scan to Xara X, where it is placed in a layer of its own. I apply a 50% transparency and lock the layer. Next I start drawing the vectorized map on layers under the scan. To keep "my" map as clear as possible, I skip all unnecessary details.

When the map is ready I export it as an eps-file. Unfortunately Xara X's eps-export is not the most reliable! Therefor I often import the Xara-made eps-graphic to CorelDRAW to check and usually export the map again as a CorelDRAW eps. CorelDRAW 9 has, in my opinion, a very good eps-export filter.

A map showing the route of a bus charter trip to Kronsjtadt via St. Petersburg in Russia. I used a scanned tourist map as a guide.

This map was made using part of a clipart map from the CorelDRAW clipart-CD. The Corel-version was in plain green and blue with black outlines - in other words boring. Also, the clipart version had thousands of nodes, which I reduced in Xara X. I used Xara's Contour Tool to get rid of the flat look.