Photoshop: Uneven stroke

Question

Unfortunately I can't find any topics to this specific issue. The ones I found are just "workarounds".

I want to achieve following style in Photoshop (the white border around the map, uneven width and automatic, no searching with manual adjustments and Undos until the right border appears):

I know how to make "rough" edges or similar by using a different texture or something like that, also by manually editing a mask (with spatter or whatever filter) maybe. But how to just make the stroke layer style "uneven"? There aren't any options with that style in Photoshop, are there? How is it possible to achieve this without having to do it manually?

Probably pretty much the "roughen edges" effect from AFX. So I can just put on an effect and the lines will always be uneven. Thanks.

Answer 1

Here's one simple method you could use, and it's non-destructive.

1. Create a shape layer for the landmass/island - with a fill, and no stroke
2. Duplicate the layer, add a white stroke, change the stroke type to "outer".
3. Drag the duplicated shape layer, under the original shape layer.
4. Use the Liquify filter to slightly distort the white stroke. Photoshop will by default turn the layer into a smart object, allowing you to add the liquify filter non-destructively as a Smart Filter, so you can edit it again if you go too far.

Here's an example showing the arrangement of the layers and the result of using the above technique.

Note: when using the Liquify filter, you can enable the "Show backdrop" option, so you can actually see the other layers while you distort.

Answer 2

I'd try something like this.

Note that there's a lot of room to experiment here. Don't just try to copy all the values I used.

1. Take a selection from the land layer (Cmd+Click Layer thumbnail).
   • Expand it by a little (I did 2px). It's going to be stretched out a bit so keep that in mind.
   • Fill the layer. Might as well use black for now and color it later. Easier to see the effect in the next few steps
2. Duplicate the layer Cmd+J
3. Apply Filter > Distort > Zig Zag
   • Style: Out From Center and Pond Ripples worked the best.
   • I used Style: Out From Center Amount: 14 Ridges: 16
   • All of these values are pretty specific to my map and its size. I'm giving you them as an example.
4. Apply the Zig Zag filter on the other layer with the same settings, but minus the same amount you used before. In my case Amount: -14 Cmd+Alt+Ctrl+F
   • I should note that... Depending on what you want, just applying the minus value to one layer might be enough to get the effect you want. I have another example of that at the bottom of the post. Doing steps 3 and 4 together will get you a more even coastline
   • You might even want to experiment with uneven values on each layer.
5. Merge the two layers Cmd+E
   • The edge may be a little soft in places where Zig Zag stretched the image the most. If you don't want that, one simple way to handle it might be to duplicate the merged layer and merge down again.
6. If the original coastline has sharp corners and you want those smoother out, you could take a new selection from the merged layer and Select > Modify > Smooth. I smoothed it by 3px. Then I filled a new layer with the coastline color.

...and this is what I got:

I figured it wouldn't hurt to give it a manual push here and there so I used Liquify, as suggested by Billy, to do little fix ups. I didn't go absolutely crazy with it, but my goal was to expand it a little more in places with more land mass and bring it in a little where there are like islands and stuff. For this one, I darkened the second coastline a bit.

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Other attempts

This is what I got by applying Zig Zag with Amount: 3 Ridges: 3 Style: Pond Ripples and on the other layer Amount: -4 Ridges: 9 Style: Pond Ripples

I wanted to try and leave a more uneven coastline, so... Here I tried just using one layer and applying Zig Zag to it twice. First I used a minus amount and then I used Zig Zag again with a plus amount and a slightly different value for the ridges.

I also tried to add a tiny blur (0,5px) to the original coastline, which didn't look terrible.

Answer 3

ADD: Just noticed that avoiding manual adjustments is the point. This is only a workaround.

One method to try; it needs no advanced vector and layer functionality nor manual drawing the non-uniformity. It's as possible in GIMP or Paint.NET:

Have your coastline (+ land) as white pixel layer; I assume the brown interior is decorative only.

With Filter > Render add some clouds as white on grey background, blur them with gaussian blur. Duplicate the coastline layer

Give to the blurred clouds blending mode darken, reduce the opacity, select the coastline copy and blur it too. The selection prevents blurring the outside.

Merge the blurred clouds and the blurred coastline. Make a selection with the magic wand (if you sample all layers, no merging is needed) which contains the forthcoming brown fill. Contract the selection if it's too near the white shape.

Fill the selection with brown. Close the blurred parts.

For roads and rivers you probably do better if you have only constant wide white.

Roads were originally white. A red copy was made. It's exterior was selected, the selection was expanded few pixels and a part of the red was deleted.

Answer 4

Try adding a Bevel & Emboss Effect

• Style = Outer Bevel
• Technique = Chisel Hard
• Change the Gloss Contour
• Highlight Mode = Normal, 100% white
• Shadow Mode = Normal, 100% white

Apply a texture

Apply a thin same color outside stroke

It's an idea, sure it can be refined by testing other textures or options to adapt it to your work.