mapmaking patterns

For a print map, making the background color a dark value will reduce your contrast range or force you to create an inverted visual hierarchy – white figures against a black ground. The inverted map can be effective if your map will be read on a monitor, but is often less effective when the map is intended for printed media. However, a pure white background to a map can reflect too much light, calling too much attention to it.

Approach a printed map as a draftsman would centuries ago — put your marks on a light-colored canvas, building your map’s depth upwards. Don’t fill the whole background with a dark hue. Mimic the look of candlelight on the paper or the age of paper by adding warm subtle tone to the background, so that it does not appear pure white, but take care not to reduce too much of your contrast range.