[buffythebanjoplayer]

Hi,
I'm doing a job where I'm supposed to make icons for individual states. I scanned in a map of the US, did "place art" and put it as layer 1, then made a new layer to work on. I'm doing each state as a separate file using the same map.

The problem is that when I zoom in on the states, the times that I zoom are determining the width of the line (I'm using the calligraphy brush tool). In other words, with smaller states I have to zoom in more, so the line is coming out thicker, sometimes very much thicker. What I want is for the line widths to be all the same so that it looks like I picked up a real-world pen and drew them.

If I had realized what was going on earlier I would have started with separate maps of each state that all started out the same size, so I would not have to zoom in, but I've done a lot of work now and hate to redo it. I'd like to know if there is any way to fix the ones I've done, such as to alter the line width (I've tried making the lines thinner but that doesn't make them all consistent)--if there is any way to do it more mathematically using the equivalent of "zooming out" to somehow alter the line that could be good, but I don't know if that's possible. Or, can anyone suggest a way to do this that would truly work? I'm not even sure if not zooming in would work, but maybe it would.

I'm not that familiar with the program and I'm surprised that zooming in on a bottom layer would alter the line width.

Thanks for your help.

Buffy

[buffythebanjoplayer]

Looking at the files more, I'm not even sure there is a problem. I noticed that when I zoom in on Texas, the lines start to look thick too. It may just be a viewing problem. But how can I adjust this? Do the lines look different according to the size of the state so that they all have to be printed at the same size to look consistent, rather than in proportion to each other? I don't know what the layout of the final book is. Is this an issue that will affect anything or am I being anxious for nothing?

Another thing I notice is although I've grouped them, if I resize one a lot to bigger, the lines I made with the line tool become detached--or is that also a viewing issue?They look connected when I zoom out or look at them when they are not resized.

Thanks for any "views" on this topic. I am really new at Illustrator!

[JonoMarshall]

Hmm, I'm slightly confused by your posts as if the brush you're using is the same, then zooming shouldn't make a difference? But this might help:

Select your current path (with the calligraphic brush effect on it) then under the "Appearance" tab/pallette you can remove/add effects to shapes, paths, etc, so if you delete your calligraphic style (something like 6pt flat I'd imagine) from the "stroke" element, you can then add a new stroke of simply 2 pts, or a new (uniform) calligraphic brush style?

I don't really understand why you can't just alter the stroke width for your different elements so they're the same - or is it the calligraphy style (of differing thickness depending on pen direction) that you're trying to get rid of?

The calligraphy brush tool is not really meant for outlining icons/objects, you should use the pen tool in the future for accuracy/ease and then apply your stroke styles/brushes from there (unless you're creating artwork from scratch of course).

[art_director]

If I were you I'd look into buying a map that's already been drawn in Illustrator. Why recreate the wheel? For approximatlely US $100 you can get such a file in seconds. Try using the Google to search for them.

[JonoMarshall]

(I can pass over a rights-free world map if you'd like - no states though, just countries, continents, rivers, lakes, etc.)

[buffythebanjoplayer]

Thank you everyone... yes, I'm blowing them up to be all the same size then I'm changing the stroke width (I didn't even know how to do that when I posted this question--that's how new I am!). It's easier said than done, because it then affects all the little line tool thingies in some of them and I have to fiddle with those (they are for the shading).
Thanks for the map info but I need the states and to have a hand-drawn look.
I'm glad you're all here!

[iREZ]

if i were you, id draw it by hand with pencil/pen on white paper, scan that image in, and then retrace it using the pen tool and not having to deal with the brush tool, but thats just me.

[Def_ears]

Originally Posted by iREZ 

if i were you, id draw it by hand with pencil/pen on white paper, scan that image in, and then retrace it using the pen tool and not having to deal with the brush tool, but thats just me.

If you're going to do that, you might as well live trace it.

[red rocket]

Originally Posted by Def_ears

If you're going to do that, you might as well live trace it.

If you're going to trace it, I'd recommend VectorMagic | The Online Tool for Precision Bitmap to Vector Conversion. Yields better results than the commercial solutions, at least in my experience.