Not every map needs a laser or a 3D printer. Some of the best-looking pieces are flat, full-colour designs you simply print and frame - a vintage parchment old town, a drafting-blue blueprint, a glowing neon skyline. This guide shows you how to turn any city into fancy framed wall art using the free Map Designer on MyLaserTools.com, whether you print at home, send the file to a Canadian photo lab, or lay it onto wood with a UV flatbed.

The designer exports a 4096 px image, which is plenty sharp for prints up to roughly A3 / 13x19 inches. The trick to a result that looks gallery-bought is all in the preset, the palette, and the framing.

Best Presets for a Fancy Printed Map

Each of these is built to be printed flat rather than cut into layers. Pick the personality that fits your space:

Preset Look Best For
Vintage Parchment Map Oxblood & sepia roads on aged paper Old towns: Quebec City, Rome, Prague
Blueprint Map White linework on drafting blue Architect’s-study, modern offices
Neon Night Map Glowing streets on a dark ground Dramatic statement pieces
Midnight Gold Map Warm gold streets on charcoal Elegant, cozy decor
Synthwave Sunset Map Bold retro gradients Playful, graphic rooms
City Map Clean, neutral palette A blank canvas you recolour yourself

Step 1: Frame Your City On-Screen

Search your city and position it so a recognizable feature - a river bend, the downtown core, a coastline - sits near the centre. Leave a calm band of land around the edges; that breathing room is what a mat board will frame later.

  • Square presets frame most cleanly in a square mat.
  • For a portrait or landscape frame, leave extra margin on the long sides and crop in your print dialog rather than stretching.

Step 2: Tune the Palette and Add a Caption

Adjustment Why It Matters
Keep water and parks quiet Lets the road network stay the hero
Add a text layer (city name + coordinates) The single biggest “this looks professional” upgrade
Turn on the compass icon overlay Perfect for vintage and nautical styles
Check palette against your frame colour Warm maps love walnut/black; cool maps love white/maple

Step 3: Export at Print Resolution

  • Export the high-res PNG (4096 px) with the Background toggle ON (you want the full coloured design).
  • At 4096 px you clear 300 DPI up to ~13 inches, and a comfortable 200+ DPI at A3.
  • Turn on small-polygon cleanup so tiny park and water slivers don’t muddy the print.

Printing & Framing in Canada

Option Where Notes
Home inkjet Your printer Use matte or fine-art paper; gloss over-shines dark presets
Photo lab Posterjack, Costco Photo, local shops Best for larger sizes and clean upscaling
UV flatbed A maker space or print shop Prints directly onto wood or white acrylic

The mat board is the biggest upgrade. A 5-8 cm mat around the art instantly reads as framed art instead of a poster taped to glass. Warm palettes sing in black or walnut frames with a cream mat; cool palettes (blueprint, neon) want white or natural maple.

UV Printing on Wood: The Premium Move

If you have access to a flatbed UV printer, export a transparent PNG (Background OFF) and print directly onto a sanded birch or maple panel with no white underbase. The wood grain ghosts through the inks and becomes the parchment - it’s the signature look for the vintage palette. Float-mount the panel on standoffs for a gallery finish.

Make It Yours

  • Anniversary gift: the city where a couple met, in the Vintage Parchment palette, with the date as the caption.
  • Gallery wall: three Canadian cities in a shared palette and matching frames.
  • Then and now: the same city in parchment beside blueprint as a diptych.
  • Switch the export shape to a heart or circle over a meaningful neighbourhood.

Want the full layered and printed walkthrough straight from the tool? See the MyLaserTools printable map guide. And if you’d rather cut your map than print it, read our guide to laser-cut topographic map art.

MyLaserTools is free for commercial use, so a framed city map is also a great low-cost product for craft fairs and Etsy.