I've been trying to put up a free map a week online, which is a bit of a stretch for me, so I've been using some aides in helping me do so. Truth be told, I'd most likely still use these aides even if I had all the time in the world to work on these maps. My hand cramps up with trying to do the tedious work of stippling or hatching the map, so I basically made a map file that is nothing but stippling dots (and in this case some cross-hatching).
I have put up an early attempt for free one week, but I had since gone in and cleaned up not only my work, but my work processes. I like the results I'm getting and thought that this might make something worthwhile for other map makers.
Originally I had something along the line of 20 different stippling layers, broken down into four "intensities" of 5 different dot sizes. One dot size was just too similar to one of the others and over time I realized that I was only using one "intensity" within each dot size. Once I separated these three files out I went ahead and bundled them with two sizes of cross-hatching I had made up as well. I don't use the cross-hatching nearly as much myself, but I just like the stippling effect to much I guess.
One thing I've started doing that isn't mention on the product page is that I over lap the stippling layers just a bit, which helps to keep definable border lines from appearing on your finished map. These lines tend to disappear when blurred some, but overlapping does a lot on its own.
I hope those that download it get some great use out of it.
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