A custom map as a gift
A map of a place that matters is one of the few gifts you cannot buy ready-made. This guide offers ideas and explains how to get the place, framing, text and frame right.
Why a map
A custom map says “I remember this place and I know it matters to you” without having to explain it. It has the advantage of photos (a specific memory) and of decorative objects (it looks good on a wall), and hardly anyone has one of their own street.
It also ages well. A film poster goes out of fashion; the map of the village someone grew up in, of the city where a couple met or of the mountain they climbed together becomes more valuable over the years.
Ideas for each occasion
A wedding or anniversary. The place where they met, where they married or where they had their first date. It works very well in a circle, centred on that spot, with the date under the name.
A new home. The neighbourhood, with the street in the middle. It is a practical gift as well as a pretty one: it helps people find their way in the first months and hangs nicely in the hallway.
A birth. The city where the baby was born, with the name and date. If the parents come from different places, two small maps of the same size side by side tell the family's story.
A move or a farewell. The city being left behind, to take along. Or the new one, to start getting to know it.
A trip. The city of a holiday, the honeymoon island or the route of a long journey. If it is a route, a topographic map at regional scale shows the whole way.
A mountain or a route. For hikers and climbers, a topographic map with the contour lines of the peak they climbed, or of the valley where they spend the summer. Few gifts excite mountain people more.
A retirement. The place where someone worked a whole life, or the village they are moving to.
Choosing the place and the framing
The most important thing is that the place is recognisable. A specific point (a house, a church, a beach) should sit in the centre with something around it for context: the square, the river, the coast or a well-known avenue.
Choose the scale for the story you want to tell. For a street or a neighbourhood, between 1:5,000 and 1:10,000: buildings show and you can point out the front door. For a city, between 1:15,000 and 1:25,000. For a region or a route, 1:50,000 or more. If in doubt, zoom out a little: the map gains from some air.
The circle is the classic gift framing: it draws the eye to the centre and looks elegant in a square frame. The rectangle makes better use of the paper and suits elongated cities or coastlines.
Look at the gallery before you start: Lisbon, Venice or Cádiz show how to frame cities with water, and Palmanova or Naarden how to show off a shape.
The text: name, date, coordinates
The map title can be the name of the place, but also something else: the couple's names, “Our first home” or a date. What works best is usually short; two or three words read from across the room and leave space for the drawing.
In the subtitle, a small line with the date or the coordinates of the place gives it the feel of a document. PlotMyMap writes them for you: next to the subtitle, “Use the coordinates” fills in those of the centre you chose, with four decimal places, enough to pinpoint a house.
So the exact spot does not get lost among the streets, mark it. In the place step, “Mark the spot” puts a pin, a heart or a star on the centre you chose, on top of everything and with a little air around it so it reads.
Choose the typeface for the tone: italic or calligraphic for something intimate, serif for something classic, technical or rounded for something more modern. All of them are single-stroke, so the whole map still looks like a drawing.
The colours
Think about the wall where it will hang, not just the map. PlotMyMap's themes change all the colours at once: ink (black on white) goes with almost anything; sepia looks like an old engraving and suits wood; night (light lines on a dark background) is striking on pale walls; blueprint recalls architects' plans.
If you do not know the recipient's taste, black on white is the safe bet: it matches any frame and any decor.
Before ordering the print, look at the map at actual size on screen: a colour that looks lovely as a thumbnail can be tiring on a large poster.
Size, paper and frame
For gifts, the most rewarding sizes are the 30 cm square, which fits anywhere and carries the circle well, and the 30 × 40 or 50 × 70 poster, for a main wall. Choose it before designing: the scale and the size of the lettering depend on the paper.
Ask for a thick matte paper (200 gsm or more): fine lines look better without glare. A print shop or an online printer can print the vector PDF at any size without losing sharpness.
A simple, thin frame in a single colour leaves the drawing in the spotlight. A white mount of 4 or 5 cm around it makes it look like a gallery print. The printing guide covers all this in more detail.
Allow time: an online printer takes a few days, and a custom frame sometimes a week. If you are short of time, the 30 cm square has standard frames in any shop.
A handmade gift
If you or someone close has a pen plotter, the map can be drawn with a pen or marker on watercolour paper. Every copy is unique, with the small irregularities of the ink, and that shows up close.
PlotMyMap exports the map as SVG with one layer per colour, ready to plot. The plotter guide explains how to prepare it step by step.
And without a plotter, a simple idea: print the map on watercolour paper and mark the spot that matters by hand with a marker. That handmade touch turns a map into a gift.
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