Last Updated on by Michael Brockbank
As a fantasy author, having a map of your lands is a virtual necessity. I know it would have saved me a lot of aggravation while writing Kingmaker. But is Inkarnate a good map maker to use for fantasy books with a lot of detail?
Although it appears more geared toward roleplaying games, it might have what you need to add a bit of flare to your books.
Whether you want to give your readers a bit extra in the hardcover version or you just simply need to remember your landscape, Inkarnate has a lot of flexibility.
What is Inkarnate?
Inkarnate is an online fantasy map maker that is intended to help RPG developers and novelists.
With an ever-growing library of graphics you can use to add pizzazz to your projects, Inkarnate is a full-featured map development tool. Notably, the platform is also driven by its community.
If you’re a gamer, you can quickly find maps to add to your campaigns developed by others. Fantasy authors can spend hours fine-tuning their maps to boost reader engagement. If you simply like maps, you can create a slew of them with varying designs and themes.
Inkarnate has a limited free version available that offers more than 700 HD art assets to use. It also lets you create and save up to 10 maps, which may be plenty for fantasy authors who are writing a one-off novel.
The Pro version, on the other hand, delivers more than 23,700 assets while saving up to 2,000 maps! I don’t know if I would ever use the entire save capacity, but I like having asset variety.
On its surface, Inkarnate has great potential for fantasy authors such as myself. But as we’ve seen before, surface-level goodness isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be.
What Can You Expect from Inkarnate?
Pros
Cons
Creating a Free Account
Creating the free account on Inkarnate was relatively easy. Although the options for what you can create are exceptionally limited, you can easily get a feel for how the platform works in general.
That’s the whole purpose of a free account, really; to determine if it’s something you’ll want to pay to use.
In any case, the free version isn’t all that bad for getting your feet wet when designing your fantasy world. Despite the limitations of the free account, you can still create some beautiful maps.
Beautiful Map Styles to Choose From
When selecting a type of map to create for your fantasy story, you have access to several beautiful themes. This includes both two-dimensional layouts and 3D-rendered regions.
This gives you quite a few options for designing elements for your book.
For instance, you could use Regional HD to design a back cover for your book of the city in which your story takes place. Or, perhaps an insert in between chapters.
Seriously, you can do so much with the different styles of graphics at your disposal. All it takes is a bit of imagination to see your world come to life.
Easy to Use Interface
Inkarnate has a clean, easy-to-use layout that doesn’t feel like it’s bloated or weighed down. All of the necessary tools you’ll want to create a fantasy map are easy to find and easy to implement.
Even the free version is without ads and fluff, allowing you to use the tools as intended.
Of course, you still have to spend time learning a few things when designing your map. For instance, the “Masking” tool is used to create your actual land mass and water, which is a bit different than what “masking” is in Photoshop.
However, Inkarnate does use tool tips to help you understand each function. Hover over any particular tool and the platform will give you a brief explanation about using it.
Save Offline Backups
Saving an offline backup can be quite helpful should something happen to your map in Inkarnate. You can download the backup at any time and use it to recover from corrupted maps or if you decide to revert back to a previous version of your creation.
You can then either leave the file on your computer or save it to something like Dropbox.
Never underestimate the value of backing up your work, whether it’s the first draft of your manuscript or the basic land mass of your fantasy world.
Maps Are Scalable
Perhaps one of my favorite features of Inkarnate is that the maps and stamps are scalable for various needs. This means you can easily make a world or regional map by making towns, mountains, and forests larger or smaller.
Then, you can add text to the map to identify markers. For instance, I added a town stamp and added the “Witcham” text while scaling the words to fit the layout.
The best part is that if you add the text stamp before you draw trees and other elements, the text will remain in the foreground.
That means you’re not covering up the text if you forget to add a forest or something.
Leaving Notes on the Map
Inkarnate provides a “Notes” tool that you can use on your map. This lets you label specific areas while providing details of what you need or want.
I’m not sure if this was the intended purpose, but I’ve added notes to myself to remind me of specific landmarks that need to be added based on my books.
The hidden notes do not show up until you click on the “Notes” tool itself. That means they don’t get in the way when you’re trying to paint the landscape and add stamps.
Sharing the Links to Your Map
Want to drum up some interest or share the map with your followers and readers? Inkarnate has the option to do so as part of its exporting function.
You can share the map itself as well as the description by clicking the “Copy Link” option when the address is provided.
Then, you can use the URL just as you would any other link.
For example, you can share it as a:
- Link from anchor text on your website.
- URL on social media sites like Twitter, Threads, or Facebook.
- Link from an email you send.
This function could be useful to engage your audience and show them your world.
Of course, this also means that people can view your profile as it will be made public. However, you can edit your profile to restrict what information is shared.
The cool thing is that Inkarnate uses an anti-theft element that prevents screenshots from taking place. Although there are ways around this, it’s a great deterrent for someone trying to steal your work.
I can’t even take a screenshot of the sharing screen itself.
Real-time Map Updates
I would like to point out that any changes you make to the map in Inkarnate are visible in the link you share. This means that you don’t have to create a whole new link every time you make adjustments.
Any time you add a new stamp or make changes to your map, anyone clicking the link will see them live. It can be a fun addition for your fans and readers as they watch your fantasy world expand over time.
Creating New Maps from Regions
One feature that is locked behind a paywall that I wish was available for free is the ability to create new maps from larger regions. This means you can essentially copy a specific section of your world map and zoom in to provide greater details of that area.
As a fantasy author who is fleshing out a large land mass, this would be ideal for specific books. Not to mention the details I could deliver should I want to expand writing to something like World Anvil for the fans.
Plus, you don’t have to worry about trying to duplicate certain details for continuity. For instance, if you have a certain layout for mountains or rivers, the maps can keep those layouts when creating a new regional map.
Only Exports JPG Files*
Inkarnate only exports map files in JPG format. This isn’t necessarily a major problem for most as JPGs are universally used in a lot of other platforms.
I just wanted to point it out in case someone needed PNGs, PDFs, or TIFFs for any reason. Of course, you can always use another tool to convert the JPG to the file type you need, such as Photoshop or Illustrator.
In the free version, the largest file you can export is 2K (2048 x 1536 px). But in the pro version, you can download maps as large as 8K while also having access to the “Custom” size selection.
For a standard 6×9 inch book printing, the 2K file should still provide decent quality.
No Offline Mode
Inkarnate currently does not have an offline mode. This means you’ll need an active Internet connection in order to use the map maker.
For most people, this may not be too much of a hassle. A lot of us are constantly online anyway. However, I am a bit old school and prefer actual programs on my computer.
In the grand scheme of things, I guess it really doesn’t matter as long as the fantasy map maker works without crashing.
Free Version is Somewhat Limited
In the free version of Inkarnate, all of the tools and functions work perfectly. However, you are quite limited in the stamps and some of the other elements that would bring a map to life.
For example, you don’t have access to creating paths or roads on your map. You also only have access to about 3% of all the available stamps.
Now, it is very possible to create a nice-looking map for your fantasy novel with the free version. But all of the really cool stuff and functions are locked behind the paywall.
Why You Would Upgrade from Free
It’s common practice for a developer to hand you a lesser version of a valuable product. While a lot of people can often get by with free versions of tools, sometimes upgrading is the best course for your needs.
Take this blog, for example. Out of the many themes and plugins I use, only two are actually “Pro” versions. The rest are free.
Still, there is something to be said about upgrading, especially if the Pro version has everything you need. In this case, Inkarnate offers a slew of stamps and features for its paid account.
You may want to think about upgrading if you:
- Need an affordable alternative to graphic design programs.
- Need some of the tools locked behind the paywall, such as adding roads.
- What a higher resolution, especially for printed copies of your book or posters for marketing.
- Want an easy map maker to flesh out your fantasy world.
- Plan on using more than just a single map.
If you just need one map and don’t plan on using any more as an author, then the free version of Inkarnate may be all that you’ll need.
Things like roads and other visuals can be easily added with a graphic design program like Photoshop, Photopea, Gimp, or any other that supports JPG files. It’s just a lot more of a hassle in the end.
Personally, I’m writing quite a long series of books and would love to share all of those areas with readers. So, it’s a strong possibility that I’ll wind up using the pro version of Inkarnate in the very near future.
Pricing of Inkarnate
Although I’m not a fan of subscription-based services, Inkarnate isn’t all that expensive. You can either pay $5 per month or $25 for the entire year. So, even if you just need a single map, you can whip one up for $5 and have 30 days to complete it.
It’s a bit difficult to determine if the price is comparable to other platforms mostly because they seem to be all over the place. Some standalone programs are only a $30 one-time purchase while some web-based platforms can run up to $50 or so per year.
But for what Inkarnate has available for the average map maker, $25 per year really isn’t all that bad to store up to 2,000 individual maps. That’s not to mention being able to export them, delete them, and then make another 2,000.
Plus, it seems that Inkarnate is an actively updated system with a fairly large community. So, it’s unlikely that it’ll turn into an abandoned project anytime soon.
I hate spending money on something that no longer has support.
Would I Recommend Inkarnate for Fantasy Authors?
After spending some time using Inkarnate, I couldn’t really find a lot of drawbacks. It is a clean system that has great functionality for what I want to create for my fantasy books.
You can zoom in and scale stamps for greater detail of the landscape, easily add location labels, and have access to a variety of styles and themes depending on what you need for your readers.
Although I did have a couple of hiccups with the system thinking it crashed when setting up my account and creating my first map, Inkarnate worked perfectly afterward. And it is an easy system to use overall.
I’m also looking forward to sharing the map of my fantasy world with links for my audience. That way, they can see it unfold as I write. Though, I’ll try not to add too many spoilers.
At the end of the day, Inkarnate is a great system and I suggest giving it a try, especially since it has a free version to test. You don’t lose anything and can play around with the map maker before making your decision.
Inkarnate Has Some Great Potential
The best map maker tool is the one that works best for your needs. And from what I’ve experienced with Inkarnate, it is perhaps one of the best for what I want to create. I might have to import the image into Photoshop and turn it to greyscale for books, but the images are sure to look nice in print.
Of course, that really depends on the print size of the book and the resolution of the JPG file.
In any case, Inkarnate has a lot of great potential whether you’re working on a fantasy book or an RPG. It has a lot of tools and settings that can help you create something absolutely unique.
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