I bought the 'Curse of Stahd' adventure, which comes with "player version" maps. I would like to print these to use in my campaign, but I want them all to be on the same scale, i.e. 5 feet for 1 miniature.
Anyone got some tips or experience on how to print these on scale that matches the 5 feet grid?
Can I assume you mean a scale where each square is five feet in the game and each square is one inch on the printed map? If so, can't you just zoom in on the maps and print them across multiple pages as needed? If you're printing on 8.5 x 11 standard letter size paper, then count out your squares on screen and then zoom in to the point where you get about 8 squares by 10 squares on each sheet then cut off the borders once they are printed. It doesn't have to be exactly one inch per square--just pretty close to one inch per square.
Yup, open up your favorite image editing software and scale up the image. Most software has some form of ruler to assist in measurements. You will most certainly need to stitch together multiple sheets to make a full map so allow a little blank space on the edges of the paper. This can also help if you like to do the "fog of war" reveal as the players make their way to poke Strahd with pointy things.
Thanks for the tips. I was hoping that there was an option to download these maps in a scale that they were immediately right. Not looking forward to manually do this for 30+ maps....
stack maps of the same scale in layers and scale up all together. then export each layer out to separate files. will take far shorter than upping the size of 30 maps individually. Obviously if each is wildly different in scale, this won't work.
Rule for drama. Roll for memories. If there isn't a meaningful failure condition, do not roll. Ever. (Perception checks, I'm .... clunk, roll, roll, roll, stop... 14, looking at you... maybe?)
- Determine the size in inches it should have along one axis (e.g. by counting the grid cells)
- Go to 'Image -> Scale Image'
- In the upper dropdown select 'Inches' as unit
- In the lower dropdown, set the resolution to 300x300 px per Inch
- Set the total width / height to the amount of inches you counted in step 2
- Resize and export as PDF
- Open with Acrobat Reader and select "Poster" in the print menu
Naresea This was very helpful to me. I just printed 4 maps this way and their squares are 1 inch. I used "The Lost Mine of Phandelver" maps from the sources here and they look amazing. Thanks for this man!!
Sorry I don't know how to quote, tag or reply correctly. I am pretty new to the forums.
Just load the image you want to use, then click on next and choose the landscape or portrait format. Your map will be automatically divided into several different pages, and at the end of the 10-second procedure, the tool will generate a pdf and you just have to print it and assemble the pages!!!
I bought the 'Curse of Stahd' adventure, which comes with "player version" maps. I would like to print these to use in my campaign, but I want them all to be on the same scale, i.e. 5 feet for 1 miniature.
Anyone got some tips or experience on how to print these on scale that matches the 5 feet grid?
Can I assume you mean a scale where each square is five feet in the game and each square is one inch on the printed map? If so, can't you just zoom in on the maps and print them across multiple pages as needed? If you're printing on 8.5 x 11 standard letter size paper, then count out your squares on screen and then zoom in to the point where you get about 8 squares by 10 squares on each sheet then cut off the borders once they are printed. It doesn't have to be exactly one inch per square--just pretty close to one inch per square.
At least that's been my experience.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
Yup, open up your favorite image editing software and scale up the image. Most software has some form of ruler to assist in measurements. You will most certainly need to stitch together multiple sheets to make a full map so allow a little blank space on the edges of the paper. This can also help if you like to do the "fog of war" reveal as the players make their way to poke Strahd with pointy things.
Thanks for the tips. I was hoping that there was an option to download these maps in a scale that they were immediately right. Not looking forward to manually do this for 30+ maps....
I see your point. Maybe just print the maps you immediately need.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
if you use acrobat - you can convert it to a pdf then in the built in options there's a built in "poster" option - works perfectly.
If you want to save yourself some work, there is a whole set of print-ready battlemaps for Castle Ravenloft available at the DMsguild:
https://www.dmsguild.com/m/product/254681
It's only the castle, though.
Otherwise, what I do is this:
- Open the image in GIMP (https://www.gimp.org/)
- Determine the size in inches it should have along one axis (e.g. by counting the grid cells)
- Go to 'Image -> Scale Image'
- In the upper dropdown select 'Inches' as unit
- In the lower dropdown, set the resolution to 300x300 px per Inch
- Set the total width / height to the amount of inches you counted in step 2
- Resize and export as PDF
- Open with Acrobat Reader and select "Poster" in the print menu
stack maps of the same scale in layers and scale up all together. then export each layer out to separate files. will take far shorter than upping the size of 30 maps individually. Obviously if each is wildly different in scale, this won't work.
Rule for drama. Roll for memories.
If there isn't a meaningful failure condition, do not roll. Ever. (Perception checks, I'm .... clunk, roll, roll, roll, stop... 14, looking at you... maybe?)
Naresea This was very helpful to me. I just printed 4 maps this way and their squares are 1 inch. I used "The Lost Mine of Phandelver" maps from the sources here and they look amazing. Thanks for this man!!
Sorry I don't know how to quote, tag or reply correctly. I am pretty new to the forums.
There is an even easier solution. Use this online tool, called Posterazor PosteRazor (sourceforge.io)
Just load the image you want to use, then click on next and choose the landscape or portrait format. Your map will be automatically divided into several different pages, and at the end of the 10-second procedure, the tool will generate a pdf and you just have to print it and assemble the pages!!!
Have fun!!!
Best wishes,
Giorgio
You have just saved the day I always wanted to use the paper maps but it was always to hard to organise this makes such a huge difference!!
will this make the grids be one inch long?