Müller: A Free 18th Century Cartography Brush Set for Fantasy Maps

In the early 18th century, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI charged Johann Christoph Müller to produce an “authentic and complete” map of the kingdom of Bohemia. Being no slouch, Müller’s end result was a massive work, done at a 1:132,000 scale and eventually engraved on twenty-five sheets by Michael Kauffer and Jan Daniel Herz, most likely in Berlin. It is from that map that we get today’s set, and what a phenomenal set it is—and, uh… it’s much bigger than I planned.

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Some of the flora, symbols, and lakes within the set.

The level of detail in this work is impressive. It reminds me somewhat of the Vischer set, especially in how elements of flora are incorporated into the landforms. The flora itself is rendered with restraint in either groups of tiny rendered trees, or a stippled scrub brush, which I labeled “wilds.” They play well off each other and work together to fill out the map. It’s easy to quickly create sprawling forests or empty plains. Within the Emperor’s request, there was a goal to map “relevant military information.” To that end, Müller mapped industrial points of interest, highlighting the locations of raw materials, ranging from metals to mineral water, and the workshops and mills that processed them. He also provided details for travel, marking the locations of warm baths, inns, mail stops, and river ferries.

A sample of the settlements you’ll find in Müller

If you’ve used my sets before, you’ll be familiar with many of the imagery choices depicting the various sizes of towns, though again Müller adds his own unique spin. Manor Houses reprise the role of the Schlosser from the Vischer set. Only Müller significantly simplifies these, and they serve as a catchall, representing anything from “castles, lordly palaces, and knights’ residences.”

The key to the original map in Latin (left) and German (right).

The extended villages were another unique approach I haven’t seen on a map from this era before. Obviously, a town or village isn’t always contained in a small bubble, especially on a map rendered at 1:132,000—one mile is 0.48 inches (or for those not beholden to the king, one kilometer here is 7.58 millimeters). To solve for this, Müller approaches communities two-fold: one is the single dot for “solitary villages,” the second adds more dots around named settlements that represent scattered or extended “rustic” settlements. Think of an extended settlement as a small town with the lone parish church and lots of farms in the area surrounding it, or similarly a village running along the length of a stream or small river. That’s what he was going for here.

Some of the landforms found in Müller

This was a really fun set to build, and there was so much to explore on each of the separate sheets. It’s no wonder this was the definitive map of Bohemia for nearly forty years. (Eventually superseded by the Josephinian Survey.) Funny enough, this is now my second biggest set, surpassing Moronobu Gansai by over four hundred brushes*. Within the might of Müller, you’ll find over 1500 brushes, including:

• 100 Walled Cities
• 25 Cities without Walls
• 100 Market Towns
• 50 Villages with Churches
• 50 Villages w/o Churches
• 50 Extended Villages
• 50 Manor Houses
• 25 Churches
• 30 Monasteries
• 30 Inns/Taverns
• 13 Hunting Lodges
• 40 Mills
• 10 Ruins
• 34 Elevated Settlements

• 31 Unique Settlements
• 200 Wilds
• 200 Forests
• 200 Individual Hills
• 100 Groups of Hills
• 50 Lakes
• 20 Miracle Markers
• 5 Archaeological Sites
• 20 Vineyards
• 12 Silver Symbols
• 2 Cinnabar Symbols
• 5 Lead Symbols
• 10 Copper Symbols
• 10 Acidic Water Symbols

• 10 Glassworks Symbols
• 20 Iron Symbols
• 15 Tin Symbols
• 3 Sulfur Symbols
• 7 Gold Symbols
• 2 Salt Symbols
• 2 Sulfuric Acid Symbols
• 2 Aluminum Symbols
• 12 Bathhouse Symbols
• 20 Ferry Symbols
• 30 Mail Horns
• 20 Crowns
• 3 Bishopric Symbols

*Look, they aren’t all going to be this big. Making sets this big is an enormous time investment in production and distribution. The tale just grew in the telling, I guess. Enjoy it. :)

The button below links to a ZIP file that contains an 27 MB Photoshop ABR brush set (it’ll also work with GIMP, Affinity Photo, and I’m told Procreate now). I also release the set as a pack of individual PNGs organized by folder, similar to how I organize the ABR file. This should make using these with tools like Wonderdraft much easier. No more extracting symbols from an enormous PNG.

Like this set? Click here to learn how you can support this project.

DOWNLOAD Müller

Download the Müller PNG Pack
(42.2 MB)

As with all of my previous brush sets, Müller is free for any use. I distribute my sets with a Creative Commons, No Rights Reserved License (CC0), which means you can freely use this and any of my brushes in personal or commercial work and distribute adaptations. No attribution is required. Easy peasy!

Enjoy Müller? Feel free to show me what you created by emailing me. I love seeing how these brushes get used, and I’d be happy to share your work with my readers. Let me see what you make!

But wait, there’s more…

Kauffer Hand: A Free 18th Ct. Type Family

Alongside the launch of Müller, I’m excited to announce the launch of my second totally free typeface: Kauffer Hand. This font is extracted from the same map as the Müller brush set and is named after one of the engravers who published the map in 1726.

This typeface is a bit cleaner than Myer Scratch, but it could still use some softening to help it feel as realistic as possible. When pulling from these historical documents, not every glyph is accounted for—J, Q, and q in the base Hand style, X and Y in Italics style, and the Q in the Title style, were reconstructed from other documents labeled with a similar style to fill out the alphabet and maintain a consistent tone with the typeface. (If you want an even more polished version in a similar style, check out Three Isle Press’s Geographica family.)

The Kauffer Hand’s Character Set.

The three variant styles can be used in multiple ways to label your projects. Müller used Italics for smaller settlements and Hand for larger ones. You can see how I even do an all-caps Hand for the titles of the largest settlements in my example map below. Title was used for bigger labels or for the map’s title. Lots of options with this one, experiment and find a way to make it your own.

Kauffer Hand has three variants: Hand, Italic, and Title.

The button below links to a ZIP file that contains the Kauffer Hand family’s OFT files. Just install the font the way you would any other. Like my brush sets, Kauffer Hand is free and distributed with a Creative Commons, No Rights Reserved License (CC0), which means you can freely use it in personal or commercial work and distribute adaptations. No attribution is required.

DOWNLOAD Kauffer Hand

Müller in Use

Want to see how I’ve used this set? There are three versions: a colored example, a black-and-white rendition, and a decorated sample. Click on any of the images below to view them larger. Perhaps this will inspire you as you get started on your projects!

4000×5000 (11.4 MB) 4000×5000 (8 MB) 1080×1350 (2 MB)

Sample Details: I hand-drew the rivers and some of the lakes in Photoshop. Roads and trails were done in Illustrator. The font is Kauffer Hand, which can be downloaded above. All the names come from locations and surnames from the enclave of Lesotho. (A fascinating place that has been in the news recently. It’s worth checking them out.) The paper texture is from True Grit Texture Supply’s Infinite Pulp, and they’re also where I got Atomica, which gives me ink-like effects for the text, colors, the roads, and trails. The title frame comes from my Fancy Frames set, which can be downloaded from the Decorative Assets page.

Support this Work

Brushes and tools released through the #NoBadMaps project will always be free and released under a public domain CC0 license. If you’d like to support the project and help me cover the cost of hosting, research, and tool-set development, I’ve put together three ways you can help, and all are detailed below.

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I’m not just a map enthusiast. I’m also a novelist! The easiest way to support me (and get something in return) is by purchasing one of my cosmic horror urban fantasy novels.

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More Map Brushes

This is just one of many brush sets and map tools I’ve released. You can find it and other free brushes covering a wide variety of historical styles on my Fantasy Map Brushes page. Every set is free, distributed under a CC0 license, and open for personal or commercial use. I’m sure you’ll be able to find something that works for your project. Click the button below to check them out!

view more Fantasy Map Brushes

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