25/05/2026
Nova Terra Full features list:
Key Features
Procedural landmass generation with sea level, roughness, zoom, seed history, contained landmass options, landmask import, and manual draw/erase tools
World scale, biomes, grids, measurement, and travel time designed to work together
Place info with climates, populations, hover cards, notes, and settlement lists
Labels, regions, title blocks, boxed text, and free text with typographic control, shadows, strokes, curves, and rotation
1,600 included stamps plus unlimited custom PNG imports, stamp collections, favorites, and instant cleanup
Stamp collections for repeated fills, decorative borders, roads, lines, and grouped symbol placement
Universal ink, full-color map mode, monochrome print options, palettes, textures, pattern fills, and borders
Flexible canvas sizing with 300 DPI print-size readouts
Painting tools with palettes, soft color, opacity, blur, pattern fill, and pattern drawing
Reference image controls with show/hide toggle, locking, drag, rotate, scale, and Ctrl + O visibility shortcut
Fast loading that only loads the symbols actually used, not an entire large stamp library
Tap-to-nudge placement controls, Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V copy-paste, collapsible menus, and smoother large-selection handling
Save groups of symbols for later use
Favorite symbols
Save editable JSON files and export high-resolution PNGs
I spent a year developing and refining Nova Terra into an unusually flexible, deeply editable map creator. Check out the full specs:
Preview Zoom
10% - 500%
Preview zoom auto-fits your working view without changing the final export size.
Object Actions
Lock/unlock selected objects; group/ungroup; duplicate; delete; clear selection; align left, center, right, and more.
Tap to nudge selected objects for precise placement.
Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V support for quick copy and paste.
Select and move very large numbers of stamps without lag.
Interface
Collapsible menus keep the workspace cleaner while you build.
Dropdown boxes are divided into clearer sections for faster navigation.
Map Settings
Map width/height with 300 dpi print-size readouts; procedural generation controls with seed history/back; world setup with map span, units, biome focus, moisture bias, biome guides; draw/erase land; contained landmass option; river drawing with start/end width and optional outline; reference image upload/show/opacity with drag/rotate/scale workflow; lock reference image; Ctrl + O to toggle reference image visibility; landmask import; local zoom/unzoom into a selected region.
Place Info
Click labels or map points to add worldbuilding notes; optional hover cards; generated biome/climate summary from world setup; edit selected place; clear saved info; settlement list; export settlement list to .txt file.
Title Block
Show/hide; title, subheading, year with automatic roman numerals, cartographer; letter spacing and italic; border width; box width and scale; left/top position; extra top/bottom padding.
Labels
City or state/region labels; city/state font sizing; state letter spacing, per-label wave, optional S-curve; shadow and stroke options for state labels; culture-based name suggestions; batch label creation from pasted lists; optional auto-place on land/coast; add, hide, and clear labels.
Modifier-click flipping of city label dots.
Text Boxes
Add boxed text blocks; edit content; selected box font size, width, padding, alignment, border on/off, border width, and double border.
Free Text
Add loose text anywhere; selected text font size, letter spacing, curve, and map-based rotation after placement.
New free text controls include additional styling options, with shadow and stroke support for stronger readability over complex maps.
Fonts
One shared universal font for labels, place info, title block, text boxes, and free text; bundled and system-font workflow notes for export.
Stamps
Pop-out stamp library; custom upload unlimited stamps; 1,600 included stamps neatly organized and labeled; import PNG stamps from single files or folders; auto-recognizes folders/subfolders and organizes them into dropdowns; bundled symbol-pack guide and external pack links; global placed-stamp opacity, size, and auto-cleanup/cleanup controls; place/hide/cancel; rectangle select; area fill; lasso/rectangle fill shape; fill density; prevent overlap; continuous stamp; random size variation.
Stamp collections let you save and use groups of stamps together. Collections can be selected individually or all at once, making them useful for repetitive fills, decorative borders, roads, lines, terrain bands, city clusters, forests, coast details, and other repeated map elements.
Collections can have a selected starting size.
Select all within collections.
Select thousands of stamps without lag.
Faster loading only loads the symbols used by the current map instead of forcing the full library to load, which is especially useful for very large custom stamp libraries.
Colors
Universal ink color with presets; full map color on/off; sea and land color palettes with swatches; monochrome print land tone option.
Paint
Nova Terra includes a painting layer for sketching, adding soft color, shading, highlights, or hand-painted details directly on the map. Choose your color, adjust opacity, blur, and brush size, then paint subtle atmosphere, terrain variation, regional tinting, or finishing touches.
Paint now includes palettes for faster color selection and more consistent visual styling.
Pattern fill and pattern drawing tools allow you to add repeated texture, terrain, decorative fills, or visual rhythm without manually placing every mark.
Grid
Show/hide; square or hex grid; pixel-based grid size; line weight; opacity; color; print-size guidance; sync to scale bar option.
Textures & Border
Paper texture preview with show/next/opacity plus hue, saturation, and brightness tint controls; map border show/inset/line width/gap; ocean lines with count, gap, growth, weight, and detail; optional ocean dot pattern with size, density, variation, and swing.
Paper texture appears in-app as a preview for now; applying that texture to the exported PNG currently uses the included companion texture app.
Drawing Tools
Ribbon/banner drawing; line smoothing; line drawing with multiple styles including road, wave, zigzag, and double-line variants; continuous and orthogonal draw; closed fills with solid/hatched/paper/custom options; pattern fills; pattern drawing tools; bezier routes; arrows and double arrows; callouts; shapes including rectangle, square, ellipse, circle, polygon, star, and gear; post-placement shape editing; hatching; brackets; compasses; fences, tracks, walls, fortifications, and bridges.
Scale Bar
Show/hide; world-setup-linked units and length; subdivisions; bar width and scale; straight-distance ruler; curved path measurement; travel-time calculator with distance/unit, custom units, travel method, terrain, hours per day, elapsed time, travel days, and average speed.
Ray Lines
Show/hide; line weight; subdivision count; decorative radial overlay.
Save & Load
Maps save locally as editable .json files and can be exported as high-resolution PNGs.
Nova Terra loads faster by only loading the symbols used in the current map, rather than loading an entire stamp library up front.
Manual
Floating quick manual covering getting started, real-place workflows, stamps, labels/layout, color/texture, drawing tools, measurement/export, and license/contact.
