How to place Curved Arrows in Maps?

by **Josh Lewis** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 7:38 am

I've seen curved arrows and such in topo maps which I would like to start doing myself. This comes in handy when your map has a lightly colored trail line. This makes it not so great for putting a line path because you still want your viewer to see the trail, but sometimes there are lots of forks on a given trail. So what program do you folks use?

Currently I have PhotoShop Elements 6 which seemed to have no kind of feature for this. I found a straight arrow, but that's boring and slightly more confusing. :wink:

by **Buz Groshong** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 1:44 pm

When I was a kid, back before we had computers, we used to draw things. Maybe you could try that, assuming you are old enough to have learned how to do it. :wink:

The following user would like to thank Buz Groshong for this post
norco17

by **Josh Lewis** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 3:47 pm

I've taken 2 years of art class. :wink:

I'm well aware that it's possible to make one on my own power. However, page creation should always take the most efficient method that takes the least amount of time (which is why I have a style sheet for my pages). If I had to draw it in manually it would either look bad or it would take a lot of time for a single map. Drawing something in real life is easier.

The future in my opinion is all about efficiency. One of the biggest reasons for even using the internet.

by **norco17** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 4:41 pm

First off Buz thank you for the comment above I have not laughed that hard in awhile.

Josh design several arrows in elements and keep them all on their own layers. When you need one in the future just drag the layer in. I am however a big fan of the line tool. You can draw anything with that thing.

by **MoapaPk** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 5:36 pm

How about...

1) use a draw tool that will make a curved line (Bezier or something better).

2) use a tool that makes rotatable polygons, and position a triangle at the head of the curved segment. (In photoshop, make the triangle, then free transform to rotate.)

Photoshop is primarily a bit-map editor, isn't it? It seems like you really want to use something with more vector capability to draw, then export the finished product as a jpeg, with all layers collapsed. Photoshop does have Beziers, at least.

http://www.photoshopgurus.com/forum/gen ... oshop.html

The following user would like to thank MoapaPk for this post
Josh Lewis

by **Buz Groshong** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 7:48 pm

Sometimes it is best to just get the information on the page and not worry so much about perfecting the presentation.

Oh, and doesn't this belong in "Page Help" rather than "Technique and Training"?

by **norco17** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 8:02 pm

Buz Groshong wrote:doesn't this belong in "Page Help" rather than "Technique and Training"?

well yes but,

Buz Groshong wrote:Sometimes it is best to just get the information on the page and not worry so much about perfecting the presentation.

by **Buz Groshong** » Thu Nov 01, 2012 5:07 pm

norco17 wrote:
Buz Groshong wrote:doesn't this belong in "Page Help" rather than "Technique and Training"?

well yes but,

Buz Groshong wrote:Sometimes it is best to just get the information on the page and not worry so much about perfecting the presentation.

Hey, I'm not the one looking for the perfect solution here. If he's going to insist on being a perfectionst, he needs to do it right! :wink:

How to place Curved Arrows in Maps?

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