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So I'm getting tired of this issue popping up, and I've decided to ask about it and what I need to do in order to make it happen. I am trying to figure out how to port the maps form the PDFs so that I an print out the maps themselves for my players to use. Some of the maps are geometric messes and I'm tired of having to do the algebra to draw them out properly (I swear to God I have OCD or something). How does one go about doing this? I can't provide printer statistics, snce the printer doesn't belong to me. Not sure if that matters.
Venture-Captain, California—Sacramento
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There are lots of different ways, depending on how much work you want to put into it.
If you have the most recent pdfs, you can click on the map, and press Ctrl + C or click copy. That will copy the map to your clipboard.
You can then paste it into the program of your choice. You could paste it into a new publisher document. (just set the page size to be large enough to hold the map, and use the "Print across multiple sheets" function. Then paste the image, resize to be the correct inches for the number of squares.)
You can do what I do
Paste into GIMP (or photo shop)
Scale Image (count the squares in each direction, and scale to that number of inches. I trim off partial squares first to make it easy)
Place guides on all the walls
Select each room, one at a time. (if a room is larger than 8x10, break it into smaller pieces.) Copy them into their own files
(optional) Remove all graphics that are going to be replaced by a mini. Edit the graphics to make them better match the room description (eg. the room description says the floor is covered in mold, it should be covered in mold, not stone.) Remove any secret doors / stairways, and make them seperate files.
Paste all the files into a word document
Print onto card stock
Cut into seperate tiles (It's a good idea to number or label the bottoms of the tiles)
(optional) laminate the card stock (I have a laminator, or I probably wouldn't bother.)
If you have the most recent pdfs, you can click on the map, and press Ctrl + C or click copy. That will copy the map to your clipboard.
What do you do on some of the older ones where the map is the base layer/the page itself, such as in Master of the Fallen Fortress?
How do you export just a page for either printing or electronic maps?
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Venture-Captain, California—Sacramento
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I know that they rereleased some of them. You might see if they have an updated download.
Otherwise you get a lot of really (un)fun time ahead of you. Find a bare bit of floor in the module, with a relatively neutral background, copy it, and use it to tile over the traps, room numbers, and GM notes.
You are going to need to export the map to either a page layout program (Microsoft Publisher) that can print a large page across several sheets of paper or a graphic program (GIMP or Photoshop) that can separate the image into smaller pieces that will fit on an 8.5 x 11, or you can take it to a print shop that will charge you $20-$60 to print it as a single sheet.
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If you have the most recent pdfs, you can click on the map, and press Ctrl + C or click copy. That will copy the map to your clipboard.What do you do on some of the older ones where the map is the base layer/the page itself, such as in Master of the Fallen Fortress?
How do you export just a page for either printing or electronic maps?
You can do a screen capture of the page and paste it into your photo editing software.
On a computer running any version of Windows:
To capture your entire desktop--including multiple monitors if you have them--press the Print Screen key. (On most keyboard layouts, this is on the upper right side, near the Delete and/or Scroll Lock keys. It's probably also labeled PrtSc or something.)
To capture just the active window, press Alt-Print Screen.
If you have MS Office 2010 or later:
You can use the screen clipping feature in OneNote to select any part of your screen and capture it:
1) Open OneNote.
2) Depending on your settings, you might get a Scissors icon on your task bar. If you do, click that. If you don't, click the Insert tab and select Screen Clipping.
3) In both cases, your screen will "fog over" and your cursor changes to a marquee selector (the little cross). Click and drag your cursor to select the area you want. When you release the cursor, you'll either be in OneNote with the selected section pasted onto the page or you'll get a menu asking what you want to do with the screen clipping.
All of these techniques capture the image on the screen to your clipboard. From there you can paste it anywhere you want. Most drawing or publishing programs have an auto-tile feature that lets you print across multiple pages.
Personally, I use Visio for sizing and printing. The grid features make it very easy to get the map sized correctly. I use Gimp for any touchups.
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If the image is embedded in a page, get the image to nearly fill the screen and then print screen. Paste it into GIMP or paint.net and cut the image out of the page print and paste to a new image.
For floorplan images use PosteRazor to print it across multiple printer pages.
Sometimes you have to do messy cut and paste things with embedded icons and text.
For other images use a large white paintbrush (20-50 pixels wide) to get rid of surrounding text.
The images should get better as paizo supports online play more.
