Design a Topographic Map Dinner Invitation

1. Choose File → New and make a 1500 × 2100 pixel document. It starts with a white Background and an empty Layer 1.
2. Click Layer 1, set the foreground to #F0ECDD and choose Edit → Fill. This is the paper.
3. Click the top ruler at 90 and at 1410 to drop two vertical guides. Then click the left ruler at 330 and 1610 for two horizontal ones.

The guides mark the map frame, with room for the title above and the invitation details below.

The heightmap is three gradients, each on its own layer. White will be the top of the mountain and black the lowest ground.

1. Add a layer called Terrain. Pick the Gradient tool, set Type to Linear, open Advanced… and set the stops to #4C4C4C and #000000. Drag from the top edge of the frame straight down to just below the bottom edge. The land now falls gently to the south.
2. Add a layer called Summit. Switch to Radial with stops #FFFFFF and #000000. Drag from where the peak goes, at about 1000, 720, out about 1250 px to the left. Open the layer's effects (the sparkle icon on its row) and set Blend to Lighten.
3. Add a layer called Shoulder for a lower second peak. Drag a radial gradient from #B4B4B4 to black, starting at about 420, 620 and going about 640 px down. Set it to Lighten too.

Lighten keeps whichever layer is brighter at each point, so the peaks merge the way hills do. Click Shoulder and choose Layer → Merge Down twice, so all three end up on Terrain.

Smooth gradients would give you perfect bullseye contours, and no mountain looks like that.

1. Add a layer, run Filter → Clouds… with Scale 3, and set the layer's opacity to 16% (click the percentage on its row). Merge it down.
2. Add another layer, run Clouds… with Scale 9 for small bumps, set it to 9%, and merge it down too.

Clouds is random, so your mountain will look different from this one. That's fine.

Real mountains have spurs, ridges running down from the top, with valleys between them.

1. With Terrain active, open Filter → Liquify… and set Mode to Push Forward, Brush Size to 260 and Pressure to 85.
2. Drag outward from just below the summit: once to the south-east, once straight south, and once west toward the shoulder. Each drag pulls bright, high ground out into a ridge.
3. For valleys, drag the other way. Start at the bottom edge between two ridges and push up toward the summit, which carries dark, low ground uphill.
4. Click Apply.

Run Filter → Gaussian Blur… with Radius 9. Blurring removes the pixel-level noise, which would otherwise turn into ragged little contour islands.

Decide now where the water goes, because contours have to bend around it.

1. Open Liquify… again with Brush Size 110 and Pressure 100. Follow the line the creek will take, from the bottom edge up to the lake, with short strokes that each push uphill. Do the same for a small stream coming down from below the summit to the lake. Apply, then do a second pass with Brush Size 90. Contours crossing these grooves will now bend into a V pointing upstream, which is how a stream reads on a real map.
2. A lake surface is level, so flatten its basin. Lasso a lake shape a little larger than the lake you have in mind, at about 650, 1170, and choose Select → Feather… with 10.
3. Pick the Eyedropper (I) and click just below the lake, where the creek will flow out. Make that grey a shade darker (#4B4B4B here), choose Edit → Fill and press ⌘D.

1. Click Terrain and choose Layer → Duplicate Layer. Name the copy Contours work.
2. Run Filter → Posterize… with Levels 21.

The heights are now 21 flat terraces. Each step between two terraces will become one contour line, so the map has 20 of them from bottom to top.

1. Choose Filter → Find Edges. It applies at once and outlines every step between terraces in grey on black.
2. Run Filter → Threshold… with Level 30 so every outline is pure white.

The lines are only two pixels wide and hard to click on, so select the black instead and flip the selection.

1. Pick the Magic Wand (W). In the options bar set Tolerance to 10 and untick Contiguous, so one click picks up every black area.
2. Click any black area.
3. Choose Select → Inverse. Now only the lines are selected.

1. Click Add Layer and name it Contours.
2. Set the foreground to #A87C52 and choose Edit → Fill. Press ⌘D.
3. Click Contours work and delete it with the trash icon at the bottom of the Layers panel.

On a USGS map every fifth contour is a heavier index contour. With Posterize you get these by doing the last four steps again with fewer levels:

1. Click Terrain, duplicate it, and run Posterize… with Levels 5.
2. Run Find Edges, then Threshold at 30. Wand the black with Contiguous off and choose Select → Inverse.
3. Choose Select → Grow… with 1 to make the line thicker. Add a layer called Index Contours and fill it with #855C37.
4. Press ⌘D and delete the work copy.

Levels 21 gives 20 steps and Levels 5 gives 4, so each heavy line lands exactly on every fifth thin one.

Trees stop at about the same height all around a mountain, so the woodland tint comes from the heightmap too.

1. Duplicate Terrain once more and name it Woodland work.
2. Trees don't stop neatly on a contour line, so rough up the copy first. Run Filter → Add Noise… with Amount 60, Mono and Gaussian, then Gaussian Blur… with Radius 10.
3. Run Threshold… with Level 159. That's the height of the third heavy contour counting up from the bottom, the one that rings the summit. Everything below it turns black.
4. Wand the black area with Contiguous off.
5. Add a layer called Woodland, fill the selection with #D2DFB5 and set the layer to Multiply. Press ⌘D and delete Woodland work.

Hillshade is the soft shading that makes slopes look lit from the north-west. The trick is to compare the heightmap with a slightly shifted copy of itself.

1. Duplicate Terrain and name it Hillshade. Duplicate that and name the copy Hillshade offset.
2. On the copy, choose Filter → Invert and set its opacity to 50%.
3. Press V for the Move tool, then press Shift+→ twice and Shift+↓ twice. That moves it 20 px right and 20 px down.

Where the two layers line up they cancel out to flat grey. Where the ground slopes, they don't, and that difference is your shading.

1. Click Hillshade offset and choose Layer → Merge Down. The result is mostly flat mid-grey with very faint relief.
2. Run Filter → Brightness/Contrast… with Contrast 100, four times. Each pass doubles the relief.
3. Run Gaussian Blur… with Radius 4 to smooth out the banding.

Woodland still sits on top, so the result looks green and harsh until the next step.

1. Set Hillshade to Overlay at 70%. Mid-grey disappears in Overlay, so only the light and shade show.
2. Click the eye on Terrain to hide it. Keep the layer, though, in case you want to change the terrain later.
3. Trim the terrain layers to the frame. Press M, click once on the canvas, and enter 90, 330 to 1410, 1610 in the exact-corners dialog. Choose Select → Inverse.
4. Click Hillshade, Woodland, Contours and Index Contours in turn, pressing Delete on each. The selection stays put while you switch layers. Then press ⌘D.

Waterlining is the old engraver's habit of repeating the shoreline as rings inside the water.

1. Click Contours and add a layer called Lake. With the Lasso (L), draw the lake inside the flat basin, about 225 × 125 px, and fill it with #BED7E6. Keep the selection.
2. Give it a shoreline. Open the layer's effects, tick Stroke, and set the colour to #4479B1, Width to 3 and Position to inside.
3. Add a layer called Waterlines, with the lake still selected, and set the foreground to #4479B1.
4. Choose Select → Shrink… with 9 and Edit → Fill. Then Shrink… by 2 (the screenshot shows this moment) and press Delete. That leaves a 2 px ring 9 px inside the shore.
5. Twice more: Shrink… by 7, Fill, Shrink… by 2, Delete.
6. Press ⌘D and set the layer to 45%.

1. Add a layer called Creek and press P for the Pen tool. In the options bar set Stroke to 4.
2. Start at the lake's south-west shore and work down along the valley you carved. Drag at each point to make a smooth curve rather than just clicking. Go just past the bottom of the frame, then press Enter to stroke the path in the foreground blue.
3. Draw the stream above the lake the same way at Stroke 3, from below the summit down to the lake's north shore.
4. Trim Creek to the frame with the same corner-dialog selection and Inverse.

The paths stay in the Paths panel after stroking. The white dots you'll see along the stream in later screenshots are its anchor points, not paint.

1. Make sure View → Snap to Guides is ticked.
2. Add a layer called Neatline and press M.
3. Drag a marquee from near the top-left guide corner to near the bottom-right one. The corners snap onto the guides.

1. Choose Select → Grow… with 4, set the foreground to #1E1E1E, and choose Edit → Fill.
2. Choose Select → Shrink… with 4 and press Delete. That leaves a crisp 4 px frame. Press ⌘D.
3. Pick the Pencil (N) at Size 3. To draw a straight tick, click on the outer edge of the frame, then hold Shift and click again a little further out.
4. Space short ticks (16 px) every 220 px along the top and bottom and every 213 px down the sides, so each edge is divided into six.
5. Make the ticks at the one-third marks longer, at 30 px. Those are at x 530 and 970 on the top and bottom, and y 757 and 1183 on the sides.

1. Add a layer called Trail. Pick the Brush (B) and open the brush settings. Set Size 9, Hardness 100, Opacity 100 and Spacing 230%. That much spacing turns a stroke into a row of dots.
2. Set the colour to #B83F34. Click at the trailhead near the bottom right, at about 1186, 1556. Then Shift-click each switchback corner on the way up to the lodge site at about 822, 1048. Shift-clicking draws a straight dotted line from the last point.
3. For the summit path, use Size 6, Spacing 260% and ink #1E1E1E, and Shift-click from the lodge up to the summit at about 1012, 726.
4. Set Spacing back to 10% so later brush strokes are solid.

1. Add a layer called Lodge. Use the exact-corners dialog to make a 26 × 26 square marquee centred on the lodge site, from 809, 1035 to 835, 1061. Fill it with ink.
2. Press V and drag the round handle just outside a corner to rotate the square about 15°. A slightly turned building looks hand-placed.
3. Press ⌘D to commit.

1. Add a layer for the ring. Pick the Elliptical Marquee, click once, and enter 776, 1002 to 868, 1094. Fill it with #B83F34.
2. Choose Select → Shrink… with 6 and press Delete, which leaves a ring. Press ⌘D and choose Layer → Merge Down so the ring joins Lodge.
3. On Lodge, lasso a small triangle about 30 px wide on the summit and fill it with ink.
4. Fill an 18 px circle at the trailhead with ink.

1. Add a layer called Marsh. With the Pencil at Size 2 in #4479B1, Shift-click a short base line about 28 px long, then three little blades fanning up from it.
2. Copy the tuft around the lake's west shore. Marquee it and press ⌘C, then ⌘V. The paste lands on its own layer on top of the original, so drag it to a new spot with the Move tool and choose Merge Down. Repeat a few times.
3. Clearings. Click Woodland, lasso two meadow shapes in the woods and press Delete, so the paper shows through. Press ⌘D.

The collar is the margin under a map where the legend and scale live.

1. Click Marsh and add a layer called Collar Rules. With the Pencil at Size 2 in ink, Shift-click a rule across the frame's width at y 1922. Add a short upright rule at x 790 from y 1684 to 1896, to split the collar into two columns.
2. Scale bar. Fill a rectangle from 558, 1964 to 942, 1980 with ink. Fill 655, 1966 to 750, 1978 and 845, 1966 to 940, 1978 with paper colour, so the second and fourth quarters turn white inside a black outline. At 300 dpi, 384 px is about 1.3 inches, which is one mile at 1:50 000.
3. North arrow. Set the foreground back to ink, because the scale bar left it on paper. Shift-click a vertical true-north line from 1372, 2024 up to 1372, 1960, and lasso a small five-pointed star just above it. Add a second line from the same foot, leaning about 15° right, for magnetic north. Give it a half arrowhead: a small lassoed triangle with one barb on one side of the tip.

The legend symbols sit in a column at x 830. The rows are 38 px apart, at y 1734, 1772, 1810, 1848 and 1886.

1. With the Brush, draw a 70 px row of red dots (Size 9, Spacing 230%) on the first row and black dots (Size 6, Spacing 260%) on the second. Set Spacing back to 10% afterwards.
2. On the last row, use the Pencil to draw a 4 px line in #855C37 with a 2 px line in #A87C52 just under it, to stand for index and intermediate contours.

1. Click Lodge, marquee the lodge ring, and press ⌘C. Click Collar Rules and press ⌘V. The copy pastes in place, right on top of the map's lodge, on a new layer.
2. Marquee the pasted copy, press V, and hold ⌘ while you drag a corner handle inward. ⌘ keeps the proportions, so it stays a circle. Stop at about 42% of the size and press ⌘D.
3. Drag it down to the third legend row and choose Merge Down.
4. Copy the summit triangle the same way, without scaling it, and put it on the fourth row.

Line each symbol up with the middle of the row where its label will go.

If you click on an existing text box with the Text tool, Lopsy edits it instead of starting a new one, and boxes extend down and to the right of where you clicked. So set the lowest line first and work upward. If a text layer is still active when you change the font settings, they apply to that layer, so click Collar Rules before each new line.

Work upward in this order, in ink unless a line says otherwise:

• Below the scale bar, the labels 0, ½ and 1 MILE in Barlow Condensed SemiBold 20, each centred under its point on the bar. Then SCALE 1:50 000 just above the bar, with letter spacing 4.
• CONTOUR INTERVAL 40 FEET at the far left, level with the scale bar, in Barlow Condensed Medium 20 with letter spacing 3.
• MN in Barlow Condensed SemiBold 16 beside the tip of the magnetic north line.
• The five legend labels in Old Standard TT Regular 26, starting at x 930 and centred on their rows: Supper Trail · 2.1 miles, Summit path, Supper at Timberline Lodge, Tamarack Peak · 6,184 ft, Index and intermediate contours.
• LEGEND above them at x 830, top at y 1684, in Barlow Condensed SemiBold 24 with letter spacing 6.
• KINDLY REPLY BY AUGUST 20 at the left, top at y 1872, in Barlow Condensed SemiBold 28 in red #B83F34, with letter spacing 4.
• The invitation in Old Standard TT Regular 31 with Line height 1.3, top at y 1740: Cocktails at the trailhead at half past five, / a lantern-lit walk up the Supper Trail, / and dinner at Timberline Lodge at seven.
• SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2027 at the top of the left column, top at y 1684, in Barlow Condensed SemiBold 36 with letter spacing 3.

Line up the left column at x 90, flush with the frame. Use the arrow keys with the Move tool to nudge.

Map labels go above all the map art, so click Marsh before each new label. Most get a halo, a thin outline in the paper colour that cuts through any line beneath the letters. To add one, open the label's effects, tick Stroke, and set #F0ECDD, Width 3, Position outside.

1. TRAILHEAD in Barlow Condensed SemiBold 22, just right of the dot, with a halo.
2. Contour labels. The interval is 40 feet, so each heavy line is 200 feet higher than the one below. Here the heavy line ringing the summit is 6000, the next one down is 5800, and the lowest is 5600.
3. Find a spot where a heavy line runs fairly straight, near the trail's lower switchbacks. Lasso a box about 70 × 28 px along it. Click Contours and press Delete, then click Index Contours and press Delete, then press ⌘D. That cuts a gap in the lines.
4. Click Marsh and type 5800 in Barlow Condensed SemiBold 22 in #855C37. Rotate it with the round corner handle to match the line (about 17° anticlockwise here), then nudge it into the gap.

1. With the Pen, draw a gentle curve beside the lower creek, about 14 px to its upper left. Start downstream and work upstream, so the text reads uphill rather than upside down. Click the ✓ in the options bar to keep the path without stroking it.
2. Press T and set Old Standard TT, Italic, 24 px, #4479B1. Water names are traditionally set in italic. Click in an empty spot, type Tamsin Creek and press Tab.
3. In the options bar, choose your new path in the Path dropdown. The text jumps onto the curve.
4. Give it a paper halo.

• Tamsin Lake in Old Standard TT Italic 25, #4479B1, centred in the lake. Instead of a paper halo, give it a 5 px halo in the lake colour #BED7E6, so the waterlines break around the name.
• ELK MEADOW in Barlow Condensed Medium 20 with letter spacing 3, centred in the clearing. It sits on bare paper, so it needs no halo.
• Supper at seven in red Old Standard TT Italic 24, just right of the ring, with a paper halo.
• TIMBERLINE LODGE in Barlow Condensed Bold 26 with letter spacing 2, just above it, with a paper halo. Keep both clear of the trail dots.

1. 6000. Cut a gap in the heavy contour on the shoulder and set 6000 in it, as you did for 5800.
2. 6184 in Barlow Condensed SemiBold 22, just right of the summit triangle, with a paper halo.
3. TAMARACK PEAK in Old Standard TT Bold 32 with letter spacing 6, centred about 45 px above the triangle, with a paper halo.
4. LITTLE TAMARACK in Old Standard TT Bold 22 with letter spacing 4. Rotate it about 8° anticlockwise to follow the ridge, then move it onto the shoulder and give it a paper halo.

1. Corner coordinates. Set these in Barlow Condensed Medium 20, about 22 px outside each corner of the frame, with the right-hand ones aligned to the frame's right edge. The top corners read 121°45′ · 46°18′ and 121°40′30″ · 46°18′. The bottom corners repeat the same longitudes with 46°15′.
2. Subtitle. AN EVENING AT SIX THOUSAND FEET ON THE SHOULDER OF TAMARACK PEAK in Barlow Condensed Medium 24 with letter spacing 4, about 90 px above the frame.
3. Title. Timberline Supper in Playfair Display SC Bold 112, with its top at about y 120. Type it in normal case and the small caps font turns the lower case into small capitals.
4. Kicker. THE PLEASURE OF YOUR COMPANY IS REQUESTED AT in red Barlow Condensed SemiBold 26 with letter spacing 6, near the top of the page.

Centre the last three on x 750 by nudging with the arrow keys.

Talus is the broken rock that piles up below a cliff, and topo maps show it as fine stippled dots.

1. Click Marsh and add a layer called Talus. Lasso an area below the east face of the peak, keeping well clear of the peak's name.
2. Pick the Spray tool (J) with Size 44, Density 12, Opacity 100 and Softness 0, in #855C37. Make three quick sweeps across the lasso. The selection keeps the dots inside it.
3. Press ⌘D and set the layer to 75%.

1. Click Layer 1, the cream fill from the first step, and rename it Paper.
2. Run Filter → Add Noise… with Amount 6, Mono and Gaussian. You'll barely see it, but it stops the cream from looking flat.

1. Click Collar Rules, then Shift-click the topmost collar text layer, which is 1 MILE if you followed the order above. Choose Layer → Group Layers and name the group Collar.
2. Now the whole collar moves as one block. If you want to try the balance, nudge it with the arrow keys and press ⌘Z to step it back.
3. Choose File → Save Project to keep the layers, and File → Quick Export PNG for the card.

At 300 dpi it prints 5 × 7 inches. A warm, uncoated card stock suits it.