Friday 6 February 2009

More map symbols and markers - some experiments


I've been looking into 18th century-style map markers and symbols that are not pictorial (but I'll go back to those shortly). Varied inspiration has been had from the Marburg Archive maps at: http://www.digam.net/?str=177 and maps in the Swedish Archives at: http://www.statensarkiv.se/default.aspx?id=7769#Bochum Some of these vector symbols will work best on small-scale maps, some on large, but I must stress that vector images are very scaleable, unlike raster or bitmap images, which become very pixelly and ugly if enlarged or lose detail if reduced in size. So an apparently too large and detailed vector image can successfully be reduced in size for use on a much smaller-scale map.

On this rough example sheet we have (clockwise from bottom left) the outline of the defences of Mannheim with hornwork to the south over the river, Dresden (top left), Minden (top right), a pentagonal fort or fortified town marker, 2 versions of the star fort marker (with 4 bastions) and a generic town marker with mediaeval town wall (bottom right) (as in the French Academy maps). Bottom centre is a small square schloss with 4 corner towers (this one was at Mannheim). In the centre are two small markers for a field fortification and siegeworks.

All open to development, revision, change, being scrubbed completely, depending on how I feel at the time... ;-)

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