General
MiniFonts Pixel Maps come in PNG-24 (colour) and PNG-8 (monochrome) formats making them compatible with most graphics packages. Both types have transparent backgrounds so that they can be placed over any background colour you wish.
For the coloured maps on non-white backgrounds, some map pixels may be lighter than the background colour. Experiment with the Layer Modes in your graphics package and you will find that many different overlay effects are possible. Depending on your chosen background colour, 'multiply', 'darken' and 'hue' are particularly interesting. Try various degrees of transparency too and you will find that the possibilities are endless.
Monochrome maps can be simply coloured with a paint-bucket tool but they are much more versatile of used as alpha-channel masks. Make a new channel and paste the monochrome map into it. You can then use the map as a selection (or inverse selection) which can be filled with gradients, photos or typography.
Web
For Web use, MiniFonts Pixel Maps are best used unscaled otherwise you might lose the crispness due to anti-aliasing. Choose the map size and grid style that best suit your purpose. If you really must scale the maps, switch to 8-bit (indexed) mode and scale by multiples of 100% (upwards) or by 50% or 25% downwards to avoid anti-aliasing.
Colours are easily changed within your graphics program but make sure you are in RGB mode. Either use the eye-dropper tool to select a current dot colour throughout the map and fill the selection with any new colour you like or use the hue and saturation filter to change all the colours at once. Use brightness and contrast to make the maps stronger or subtler.
For all maps, the default background is transparent so that you can overlay them on whatever background colour you like. It's best to overlay them on their intended page background colour, apply whatever layer effects you want, flatten the image and make the background colour transparent again before saving.
Monochrome maps can be re-coloured as required or used as masks for gradient fills or photos.
If you modify or crop a map, re-save it in PNG or GIF format. Don't use JPG for graphic images such as these – they won't be as sharp or compress as efficiently.
Presentations
When you want to show countries or cities in a slide show, MiniFonts Pixel Maps can be imported into your presentation program and overlaid with text, figures, images and other diagrams.
Show your branch offices across the World or sales figures state by state. Highlight countries in which you want to launch that new product or extrude the pixels into bars to represent population statistics.
Although MiniFonts Pixel Maps are supplied in 24 (colour) or 8-bit (monochrome) PNG format at low resolution, they are easily resized and changed into CMYK TIFFs for print use within your graphics editor.
For print, where resolution is much higher than Web images, scaling the maps is not an issue. To convert a map for same size reproduction in print, resize it by 400% while still in 8-bit mode (to avoid anti-aliasing) then convert to CMYK or RGB and save in TIFF format to import into your page makeup program.
Effects
Apart from changing colours and strength, there are a great many effects that can be used to make your maps look more distinctive.
Layer Effects. By putting two identical layers on top of one another and shifting one layer horizontally or vertically, you get lines instead of pixels.
Drop Shadows. Either use your graphic editors shadow filter or simply make another layer slightly offset from the top one. Make the bottom layer paler.
3D Effects. Experiment with whatever effects you have available in your graphics program. These could include extruding, texturing or making each pixel into a little pyramid.
Alpha Channel Effects. One very useful technique is to take the map into an alpha channel and use it as a mask. This way you can add gradients or make photos 'shine through' the pixel grid.
Animation Effects. Use animated GIF techniques or Flash to bring your maps to life. Simulate weather, bird migration - or kangaroo hops.