Exploring transition textures for pseudo-natural maps

Pseudo-natural maps show land cover information in a compelling style that combines cartographic abstraction with natural appearance. To make this style available to the modern cartographer, a (semi-) automatic method that generates pseudo-natural textures for rendering land cover categories on maps would be helpful. This article focuses on a single aspect of pseudo-natural map creation, namely the generation of gradual, natural looking transitions between land cover categories, so called transition textures. We give a survey on how texture synthesis algorithms are used in computer graphics to handle transitions between textures and point out how they could be useful for creating textured maps. By pointing out promising approaches, we aim to contribute to the development of (semi-) automatic methods for the generation of textured pseudo-natural maps in 2D and 3D for static perspective views.