I need to create an attractive set of static tiles for the USA (based on 
shapefiles) to populate a web-server-only (e.g., small-footprint, not 
dynamic, not a real map server) online map to embed in a java-based 
application without internet access.

My first attempt used ArcGIS to render a GeoTIFF of a layout at high 
resolution and then passed the image into gdal2tiles.py 
(http://www.klokan.cz/projects/gdal2tiles/) (which is EXCELLENT) to 
create a shell OpenLayers app that I can customize. This worked fine, 
except the image quality from ArcGIS was horrible, particularly when 
zoomed in (no anti-alias).

I'm a now trying to use mapnik (mapnik.org) to create the same image at 
higher quality. But I am suffering deeply from an acute lack of 
documentation which makes creating the cartography even more painful 
(where are recipes, examples, and docs for mapnik?)

Is there something else that I can use to create the tiles needed for 
the OpenLayers app? Or is there an easier tool for creating a high-res, 
high-quality georeferenced image that can be used by gdal2tiles.py? Any 
thoughts would be greatly appreciated.