Drawing Maps in Illustrator

Follow the steps below to create your own vector map in Illustrator. This tutorial below can be used in creating your own maps from google maps, images, archive maps etc. For a better understanding of the basics of using illustrator, visit Illustrator

Vector map in Illustrator

Placing an Image

Any image in jpeg, png, pdf formats can be used in making the maps. This step is important as your drawing will be based on the tracing image you chose. Make sure that the map is readable. More information on the map means the drawing can be more detailed.

• Create a new document in Illustrator File » New You can also use the shortcut key Ctrl+N. From the dialogue box that opens, select the prefered size and orientation.

Getting familiar withshortcuts will be helpful in the easy use of illustrator. More shortcuts in Illustrator can be found here

• Open the image on the file you have created by using File » Open or drag the image from the folder into illustrator. The image can be transformed. Check Illustrator

Placing an image map

• Working with layers is very important for Illustrator. For more information, visit Illustrator
• Once you open the image, it will be placed on Layer 1. You can rename the layer name by double-clicking on the layer
• Double-click on the layer box to bring out the Layer options. You may check the template and have the image dim to 50% for easier tracing. By checking the print box, you have the option to print this image or not.
• You can also reduce the opacity by selecting the map and checking the opacity option on the menu bar

Tracing an Image

Identify the image into components such as main road, sub-road, water, green, buildings, railway line etc. for tracing the map in Illustrator. This will help in making the drawing in layers.

Drawing the roads

Categorize roads into layers - main roads and sub roads. Create layer main road and trace the image using pen tool as shown in the image below.

Drawing road

Drawing the borders

• After tracing the road lines, for adding the border to the main road, copy the lines in the main road layer using Ctrl+C. Create a new layer named 'main road border' and place the road lines below using Shift+Ctrl+V
• Increase the stroke weight of all the lines in the main road border layer below so that it appears as a border to the above 'main road' layer

Drawing border

• Once you have drawn the main road, lock the main road layer and continue drawing the sub roads in different layer. Make sure that all the border layers are below the road layers. Keeping each road sets in its own layer helps for easy editing.

Roads mapped

Drawing the junction

• Draw a circle on a new layer 'Junction' using Elipse tool by pressing Shift and follow the same steps as followed for making the roads and borders.

Drawing Junction

Drawing water

• Trace the water on a new layer and change the colour by using Filloption.You can also draw curves using Pen

Drawing Water

• Continue tracing all the components you want from the map image in layers. The image below shows buildings, green and railway line traced

Mapped Image

Styling

Illustrator provides various editing options in order to stylize the image.

Styling the appearance

Once you have traced all the lines, there are multiple ways of stylizing the drawing. For any changes to be made to a layer, click on the round button in the layer manager next to the layer name for selecting all the graphics in the layer. For faster editing of lines, Layer appearance can be used for styling instead of using stroke and fill option. Whatever changes are made in the Layer appearance will reflect on all the graphics drawn in that particular layer. From the appearance panel Windows » Appearance, you will have different options of stylizing the graphics including stroke and path options.

Adding Labels

For naming streets and locations on a map,Type tool can be used. Make sure that the text layer is on top. The appearance of the text can be edited by following the 'styling the appearance' step above

Adding Text

When you have finished tracing the components from the map, hide the 'Map' layer that contains the imported image and add a new base layer below all the layers. The new base layer can be a rectangle drawn using the Shape and fill the rectangle with the desired colour using Fill option.

Exporting the image

The Illustrator vector map that you have created can be exported in many formats such as jpegs, psd, CAD etc using File » Exportoption. In order to export the map as a pdf, go to File » Save and from the dialog box that appears, select pdf for 'save as type' option. While exporting the image, only the graphics within the artboard will only get exported. The illustrator file in .ai format can be directly imported to InDesign or Photoshop as the file creates a link to the illustrator vector map drawing. Any further changes made on the Illustrator file will be reflected if it is used as a link.