How to color world maps (as seen on Wikipedia)

[jent]

I can think of a lot of projects I'd like to make custom maps for, coloring certain countries and leaving others "gray," as frequently seen in Wikipedia articles. Can anyone explain in a clear and concise manner how to do this?

Here are links to an example map and a blank map, both on Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ot...ty_members.svg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bl...ectangular.svg

Thanks for any help!

[Tomorrow]

...paint bucket? Or am I not understanding the question?

[jent]

Originally Posted by Tomorrow

...paint bucket? Or am I not understanding the question?

That would mean meticulously clicking Canada dozens of times to get all of its islands. Repeat for the geographical intricacies of nearly two hundred countries.

I was thinking that since thousands of articles work off the same template, there must be a website that lists the countries and allows you to make them as you see fit, automatically applying the color of choice to the full country.

[LPZ]

Originally Posted by jent

That would mean meticulously clicking Canada dozens of times to get all of its islands. Repeat for the geographical intricacies of nearly two hundred countries.

I was thinking that since thousands of articles work off the same template, there must be a website that lists the countries and allows you to make them as you see fit, automatically applying the color of choice to the full country.

The files you linked to are .svg files. I opened the second with Inkscape. It seems that all the regions that belong to a given country (eg, Canada and all its islands) are grouped, so you can simply select a group and choose a fill color.