A poster map of your own city: making a print-ready vector map yourself

A poster with a map of your home city is an easy thing to make yourself: you need a vector map of the right piece of the city, ten minutes in a graphics editor and an online print shop. Let's walk the whole route: which area to take, which style to choose, which format to print from and what to add on top.

Step 1. Choose the area

A whole city on a 50×70 cm poster turns into a grey cobweb, so the area is picked by these guidelines:

• 3-5 km across — the city centre;
• 1-2 km — your district or block, individual buildings show;
• 8-12 km — the whole city as an overview, and only in a minimalist style.

How to match the shape of the selection to the print size is covered in the city map poster in vector.

Step 2. Choose the style

Style matters more than the area. Posters usually use:

• Minimal — road and water outlines only, black on white. The most "poster-like" option, great in a thin frame.
• Midnight and Dark Pro — light lines on a dark background. Striking in an interior, but demanding on print quality: cheap paper eats the depth of the black.
• Blueprint — white lines on blue, the look of an engineering drawing.
• Ink Drawing and Vintage — drawn and aged variants, if you want warmth rather than strictness.

An overview of every option with examples is in 20 map styles.

Step 3. Take the right format

• PDF — what you bring to the printer. Vector, fonts inside, any size with no loss of sharpness.
• SVG — if you'll be reworking the poster: recolouring, removing layers, adding text. Save to PDF after the edits.
• PNG — only for a preview in a messenger or on screen. You can print raster at 50×70 cm, but then the file must be 5900×8300 pixels at 300 DPI — around 150 MB uncompressed.

One detail of the builder: pick the "PDF vector" tile. The tile labelled simply "PDF" gives a raster PDF (sheet up to A2, 300 dpi) — fine for viewing and sign-off, but not for printing a poster on a plotter.

What to do with SVG in Illustrator, Inkscape and Figma is spelled out in SVG maps for design; if you work in Photoshop, see maps in PSD.

Step 4. Size and resolution

Common poster sizes: 30×40, 40×50, 50×70 and 60×90 cm, plus A2 (420×594 mm) and A1 (594×841 mm) — the easiest sizes to find a ready-made frame for.

• A poster people walk right up to — 300 DPI.
• A large print viewed from 1.5-2 metres — 150 DPI is enough.
• Leave 3-5 mm of bleed if it's printed edge-to-edge, and keep captions no closer than 10 mm to the edge: part of it will disappear under the frame or the mount.

With vector you don't have to think about DPI at all — it only matters when you hand over a raster.

Step 5. Frame, title, coordinates

These three details are what turn an export into a poster. Open the SVG in Illustrator, Inkscape, Figma or Affinity Designer and add:

1. A margin all round — 3-5 cm of empty space; the map shouldn't butt against the edge.
2. The city name large, under the map, letter-spaced — a classic poster typography move.
3. The centre coordinates in small type under the name, for example 55.7558° N / 37.6173° E.
4. Optionally a thin dividing rule and a date or occasion.

Better one typeface across the whole poster, in two weights. And check the contrast: what reads on screen often comes out a shade lighter on paper.

Step 6. Where to print

These are printed at online print shops (interior printing, "poster printing") and at copy centres with a wide-format plotter. Ask for matte paper at 200-250 g/m² — gloss glares under glass. When ordering, check whether they want bleed, whether they need CMYK and whether they print edge-to-edge. We don't print maps and don't sell posters — we hand you the file you walk into any print shop with.

Easier — get a ready file straight away

Select your district, pick a style and download the map straight as PDF for printing, or as SVG if you'll rework it in an editor. PNG is handy for a quick look at the result. It's free and takes seconds.

In short

• Area: 3-5 km for a centre, 1-2 km for your own district; the whole city only in a minimal style.
• Style: Minimal and Midnight are the most poster-like; Blueprint and Vintage are a matter of taste.
• Format: PDF to print, SVG to rework, PNG for preview only.
• Sizes: 30×40, 50×70, 60×90 cm, A2 and A1; 300 DPI up close, 150 DPI for a large print.
• What makes it a poster: a margin all round, the city name letter-spaced, and coordinates in small type.