Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Jabo2531 Jul 22, 2008 11:26:05	anyone know of a link or a how to on how to print out maps from adventures, I like to use dungeon tiles but I don't every one that I might need. example what would be an easy way to print this to scale out via, paint, photoshop etc.
#2 darth_serenous Jul 22, 2008 12:14:03	I do recommend Illustrator. Because printing a picture like 4 times their real size will make it ugly. You can use Illustrator to retrace important traits or simply "auto-trace" but results can vary. You can find a 30 days trial on the Adobe web site
#3 lao_tzu_02 Jul 26, 2008 6:03:25	I found that scaning the maps in at 400 dpi (good scanner at work ) and using photoshop CS2 to enlarge the picture. The results, while not crystal clear, were good enough for a table top game. The easiest way I found was using the marque tool to measure a square on the grid (for example it could be .25 of an inch, therefore an increase in size of 4 fold was required). I then cut and paste the image into a new file (A4 size to make printing easy) with the dpi set at 100. Clean up the DM markings and done. By the end it took me about 2 hours to complete one level of the KotS Here is the final result: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28998972@N08/ The players loved it. The treasure room takes about 4 A4 (or Letter for the Americans:D ) sheets of paper.
#4 danmarlok Jul 26, 2008 22:42:47	I have two things to say. Awesome! And how many ink cartridges did you go through?!
#5 Jabo2531 Jul 27, 2008 2:02:04	Cool thanks for the advice Im going to have to freshen up on my photoshop skills. Nice maps btw awsome job
#6 lao_tzu_02 Jul 28, 2008 3:28:14	I have two things to say. Awesome! And how many ink cartridges did you go through?! None. Work has a very good colour printer! :D
#7 noisician Jul 28, 2008 14:30:31	Lao Tzu - those look awesome! :D so, are you not going to share your files so we can have them for our own personal use?
#8 baik_telor Jul 28, 2008 22:55:42	Beautiful. However, I always wonder something when I see full scale maps like these: Do you cover up parts of the map, revealing a little bit as you go, or do you just leaving the whole thing out for them to see? The reason I ask is it seems like players being able to see rooms they haven't entered yet might provide an unfair advantage. Some maps have "special" looking rooms that players might make a bee-line for, as opposed to exploring the dungeon in a more organic fashion. I realize it's up to the player to separate what he knows as a player and what his character knows, but it just seems too tempting to look at the room obviously containing the shrine to Orcus and say "hey guys, maybe we should check out this area back here first".
#9 lao_tzu_02 Jul 29, 2008 3:41:07	Beautiful. However, I always wonder something when I see full scale maps like these: Do you cover up parts of the map, revealing a little bit as you go, or do you just leaving the whole thing out for them to see? When I cut the map up for printing I try to do so I can put down only what the PC's see from where they are standing. There were a couple of rooms that were divided by curtains, so I separated them and only put the final part down when they pulled the curtain back. What was shown in the picture was after a full nights adventuring. You may have noticed that there was one room not fully explored. That is going to come back to bite them tonight. :evillaugh
#10 baik_telor Jul 29, 2008 5:46:51	When I cut the map up for printing I try to do so I can put down only what the PC's see from where they are standing. There were a couple of rooms that were divided by curtains, so I separated them and only put the final part down when they pulled the curtain back. What was shown in the picture was after a full nights adventuring. You may have noticed that there was one room not fully explored. That is going to come back to bite them tonight. :evillaugh Cool, thanks for clarifying.
#11 _jayne_cobb_ Jul 29, 2008 11:03:39	If scanning… 1) Work out by how much (%) you will need to enlarge the image to get it to scale 2) Multiply this by 225ppi to get your scan resolution 3) Make sure you scan with descreening turned on 4) Adjust size in Photoshop so squares are exactly 1" 5) Apply an Unsharpen Mask filter 6) Reduce to 150dpi If using web images… 1) Get the highest resolution image possible 2) Increase to 600+dpi 3) Resize till squares are 1" exactly 3) Apply Unsharpen Mask a couple times. 5) Reduce to 150dpi The results will not be great when upscaling a small image, but these methods should help make them as usable as possible.