Liane - 12:14 pm on Oct 12, 2001 (gmt 0)

Well, even with a fresh pair of eyes ... it is a tough call to make a choice. Several of them are really, really good! Others are just really good.

All my other maps (although the height will be quite a bit smaller on most) will have at least 4 colours and some of them require one or two more in order to denote specific things which need to be easily spotted. I'd like to keep continuity throughout the map guide. Ergo, the red stays.

stavs: sorry but I want to keep the red.

Kapow: lost too much detail for my liking.

IanKelley: although very good, the map seems a little blurry even in the morning.

DaveN: tried to shave off part of the map and got rid of all outlines. Sorry Dave.

Drastic, NFFC and 4eyes: Very good, but all lost resolution in the type. There's something funky happening to some of the letters like the "C" in Caribbean.

Oilman and pageone both get "honourable mention" for different reasons, but upon clear(er) eyed inspection did not make the final cut.

I hope nobody takes offense for not choosing your entry ... I was amazed at how small you were able to make the file sizes. But some pushed it a little further than I would like to go.

There are two winners:

Evinrude wins overall for not altering the map in any way. It is crisp, very legible and he left in "Property of" which appears on the map twice and which many of you did not consider when converting to 4 colours. However after Mivox's "ROFL" comment, I suppose it is futile to worry about people stealing stuff, so it may as well come out.

Macguru also wins because he and several others saw no need for keeping black as one of the colours. After thinking about it, neither do I. The only reason it was there at all is because that's how I started out drawing the various islands, and it never occured to me to change it ... but its a great idea. He also changed the dark blue type to a darker blue to give the map just a little more contrast ... making it slightly easier to read and that's important to a lot of people who don't have 20/20 vision. Also a good idea.

After spending an hour hemming and hawing over which of the two to pick ... I can't!

If I go back to the original, and steal Macgurus ideas of changing the black outline to blue and changing the dark blue type to the darker blue ... will you compress it again without any changes from the original?

I think that is the only way to pick the real winner overall. Are you two game? What do the rest of you think ... is that a fair way to pick the final winner of the "squash-athon"?

Thanks everyone for giving this a go!