I have noticed that there are battlemaps on the web that are blown-up versions of the blank maps from the Dungeon downloads.
Do any of you mapmakers care to share your secrets of how you blew up the maps to the right scale for miniature battlemaps? I have been trying to use Dunjinni, without much success, and I am wondering if blowing up the blank maps is the way to go.
Doyle
Do any of you mapmakers care to share your secrets of how you blew up the maps to the right scale for miniature battlemaps?
I use Paint Shop Pro (PSP) to create 8" x 10" images that I then print, cut in half, and use like Paizo's Map Tiles (which I think are great). It does take some time, but I was recently able to create map tiles of the Tamoachan encounter from The Sea Wyvern's Wake in Dungeon #141. I used the Map and Handout Supplement posted on Paizo's website to get the map without symbols.
Step by step:
1. I used PSP to create a transparent 8" x 10" page, turned on the Grid, and Snap To Grid, and set the Grid spacing at 1".
2. Then added lines for the grid to the perimeter of the page and the vertical and horizontal lines at 1" intervals (to create the battle grid). Then saved this file as the basis for use to create future pages.
3. With the 8" x 10" grid page open, I pulled up the image of Tamoachan so I could see the 1st 8 square x 10 square section of the map that I wanted to put on a grid.
4. Then, using a PSP "screen capture," I grabbed the image from Tamoachan (8 squares by 10 squares worked perfectly since the Paizo folks were nice enough to set 1 square = 5 feet as their map scale).
5. In PSP, I copied the image that I had just captured and pasted it into the 8" x 10" grid file. I then moved the image to the top of the grid (which it neatly "snapped to") and then used the "deform" tool to stretch it to 8" x 10". (Since the Paizo folks were thoughtful enough to create their original map to 1 square = 5 feet scale, the image fit perfectly.)
6. I then arranged the layer with the grid to be in front of the layer with the map.
7. I printed the map on Wausau Bright White 65 lb card stock, trimmed the edges, cut the maps in half on the 10" length (for neat 5" x 8" map tiles).
8. Repeat steps 3-7 for each 8" x 10" page of Map Tiles.
I'm going to give these a try this week with my group. They're more like the Paizo Map Tiles then the WoTC Dungeon Tiles in weight -- but I think they'll work great.
Hope this wasn't too much information!