Wikipedia:Picture peer review/Late medieval trade routes

Late Medieval Trade Routes

Main trade routes of late medieval Europe. Black: Hansa, blue: Venetian, red: Genoese, purple: Venetians and Genoese, stippled: overland and river routes.

I've never nominated a picture before, and I have no idea what is required, so I'm putting it up here first. I should add that it's not entirely my own work. The background map is this one: Image:Europe outline map.png, made by User:IMeowbot, who in turn based his work on "PD maps (copyright expired) from The Historical Atlas by William R. Shepherd." The routes and towns are added by me though, and it's based on a number of different sources, so there's no copyright violation. The map is currently in use in the article Late Middle Ages.

Nominated by: Lampman ^{Talk to me!} 16:34, 28 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Comments

Map ought be in vector form. This is not too tough, if we can use one of the many blank svg maps and add on the trade routes on top. If you're not familiar with svg, I can probably do it for you. One thing I like to see in maps is that any color codes are defined directly in the image itself, rather than having to memorize an external code. So the trade routes ought to be labeled directly. I'm not sure whether this map has enough of a special quality to be featured; putting lines on a base map is pretty routine, so in my mind to be feature-worthy it should have extra content, or be very carefully and precisely constructed. Can you think of anything to add to make it really special? Jeff Dahl (Talk • contribs) 22:24, 31 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your offer, the original is in vector form as I made it in Microsoft PhotoDraw, I'm just not able to save it as svg. I thought about adding the colour code to the map; that's why I left the blank space in the upper right corner. If I do that I'm gonna have to also upload a second version for translations though. As for adding anything more than that, I don't think that's a good idea. I wasn't going for opulence, but clarity of information and esthetic appeal, and I don't want to sacrifice any of that for featured status. Lampman ^{Talk to me!} 13:20, 6 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'd say if you can upload a vector version, removing the dotted line around the border, adding direct labels, and listing the major goods being traded along the routes, I would support the map on FPC. Listing important trade goods adds content to the map without making it cheesy or just being decoration. Also consider adding a title with the time frame in question, directly on the map. The advantage of svg is that it is very, very easy to translate the map into other languages. On commons, there are many images which have been translated into several languages in this way. If you're not familiar with it already, try inkscape; this free drawing program is really a great way to draw. Jeff Dahl (Talk • contribs) 23:46, 8 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, I've actually thought about adding trade goods; if there's a way I can do it without making the map too cluttered then that's probably a good idea. Anyway, thanks for your comments, it's been really helpful, I'll see if I can find time to look into this. Lampman ^{Talk to me!} 22:14, 13 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Seconder