Paper Star Map

The chart is identical in substance to every design we make: around 9,000 stars from the HYG catalog down to magnitude 6.5, and all 88 constellations with their official line figures, computed for your coordinates and your minute, any date from 1900 to 2100. On a pale ground the brightness of stars is shown by size alone, so the familiar figures, Orion, the Plough, Cassiopeia, stand out clearly as clusters of larger dots.

Because there is no dark ground, the horizon ring and the constellation lines carry more of the design. Switch the lines off and Paper becomes a field of dots on cream, which some people prefer as pure décor.

• A new home. The sky above the address on the first night, on a poster that suits an empty white wall.
• Weddings. As décor, Paper sits beside invitations, menus and place cards without a change of palette. As a gift, it fits a first apartment.
• First anniversary. Traditionally a paper gift, and this is a star map that looks like paper.
• Anniversaries and births in light rooms. Wherever a dark poster would be the darkest thing on the wall.

For the same pale poster with a dark circle of sky, see Navy Disc and Black Disc. For a heart on the same ground, Heart White.

The ground is a warm off-white, not a bright white, chosen to look like stock rather than a screen. Stars are drawn in near-black; constellation lines are a mid grey; the ring is grey too. Title and details are set in dark ink. The whole piece reads as a two-tone print.

Paper is the easiest design to print at home. It needs almost no ink, so any decent printer on a heavy matte paper produces a clean result, and the warm ground hides the slight cream of most paper stocks. It is the design we recommend to anyone planning to print the digital file locally and frame it themselves.

Our framed print puts it on semi-gloss paper in a black wood frame, where the black edge gives the pale poster its outline on a white wall. It also works in a natural wood or white frame if you print it yourself.

• Our first night here / 12 Maple Street
• Sofia and James / 21 June 2025
• Paper / our first anniversary
• The night you were born / Portland, Oregon
• Home / 45.5152 N, 122.6784 W

Ink on cream reads well at any length, so a longer subtitle is fine here.

The digital map costs $25 and includes a PNG and a print-ready PDF at 300 DPI, sized for 12x16, 18x24 and 24x36 inch frames. Files arrive by email within minutes of purchase.

Framed prints are $69 for 12x16, $109 for 18x24 and $179 for 24x36. Each comes in a black wood frame with an acrylic front on semi-gloss paper, ready to hang. Shipping is free to the US and 40+ countries and usually takes 7 to 12 business days.

You can add your own photo to any map for $19. Every order is covered by a 14-day money-back guarantee, counted from purchase for digital files and from delivery for framed prints.