I have drawn a couple city maps now for my campaign, but I am still not happy with the way the final map image looks when I am done with it.

Can anyone provide advice/tricks for how to get a better looking map out of line art?

Should I try imposing it on a parchment looking background? Any color/photoshop tricks for fill or background to get a more better looking final image?

(Just to be clear, I'm fine with the scanning and adjusting of the image to produce clean line art of the city layout, but once I have the lines, I can't seem to figure out what to do with them.)

thanks.

Try watering the paper, let it dry and then use a lighter to burn the sides. Everybody loves a treasure map

And be carful with the fire!

Change the lines to white on black (rather than black on white).

Gradient very dark grey to dark grey (top to bottom), then make a lighter grey grid over the top of it.

Add nonsense numbers along the sides of the grid.

???

Profit!

Dependes on what kind of map you want. If you are looking for something like a blueprint use white lines on a blue background. If you like a more old look create a background that looks like yellowish old paper and then paste the lines over. When that is done adjust the colors on the lines into dark browish. The you can add what symbols and text you feel is appropriate.

I'll try a couple of these suggestions.

thanks folks.