Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-31417419-20181008074350/@comment-27815744-20181008133722

Paint.net is great and free. It only does bitmap, but to be honest for what your probably going to do bitmap is fine. If you want text/locations/rivers/roads on your map then just use layers and flatten while exporting, while keeping the original .pdn file for editing purposes.

Photoshop is total overkill, and can actually over-complicate things, unless you want to make vector based maps.

Speaking of vector maps, I have recently been experimenting with making them with Vectr (also free). However importing existing maps gets messy, especially if code has been reduced, so if you want to go all out buy Photoshop. Vectr is still great for making flags and Coat of Arms.