I can't figure out print scale
Highland_Piper
Surveyor
I need to make maps that I can print posters but they are not battle maps. But for the life of me I can't figure out how to make the map size. I'm doing 1 Hex = 3 feet. I want to be able to just save the png and have the map come out to size without having to go into photoshop to resize it. I could have sworn I asked about this before but I could not find the post.
Even trying to print to pdf at A1 size does not seem to work, I'm doing something wrong here.
- A1 594 × 841mm or 23.4 × 33.1 inches
- A2 420 × 594 mm or 16.5 × 23.4 inches
- 400 mm x 300 mm or 15.74 x 11.81 inches
- A3 297 × 420mm or 11.7 × 16.5 inches
- A4 210 × 297 mm or 8.3 × 11.7 inches
Even trying to print to pdf at A1 size does not seem to work, I'm doing something wrong here.
Comments
Say you want your hex to be 1" (25.4 mm) wide. The hex's height is then 1.1547" (29.3 mm) because the height of a regular hex is width/cos(30°) assuming the hex is turned so that a node points up.
To print you have to check the Scale Factor radio button, put 1" in the Paper Distance box and 3' in the Drawing Distance Box.
Now to calculate the best paper size you'd need : width number of hexes x 1" (or 25.4 mm), height number of hexes x 1.1547" (2.93 mm).
Example : if your map is 20 hexes wide and 12 hexes high, the map will be 20" (508 mm) wide and 13.86" (352 mm) high so an A2 sheet would be needed, but not filled...
On the other hand if you want to fit the paper, you first have to take the margins out (see your printer doc).
With your 1" wide hex you can fit an A4 sheet 297/25.4 = 11 hexes times 210/29.3 = 7 hexes in landscape mode and 210/25.4 = 8 hexes times 297/29.3 = 10 hexes in portrait mode (values rounded and no margin).
Of course, you must adapt the values if your hexes are not 1" wide.
Drawing Units and Map Dimensions don't set the print size. It's the print scale, the dimensions and units, that do it.
If you want to fill exactly an A1 area the ratio of the length & width of your map must be 594/841.
The map can be 5.94x8.41 ; 594x841 ; 5940x8410 ; 1188x1682 ; 0.001188x0.001682... you get it, in any unit you want.
But don't forget the margins (printer dependent).
Say the margins are 10 mm on every side (often you have a greater margin at the bottom), make your map 574x821 or any multiple of it and print with the Fit to page option and all your A1 printable area will be filled.
I just did so with PDF creator. Just set the paper size before hitting "OK" and be sure that the View To Print pannel is set to Everything and All visible sheets as one page.
Hope I got it right now...
*EDIT*
Apparently it IS the Adobe PDF Print Driver. I can not have the Print Everything checked on but there is no way to uncheck it.
It doesn't have A1, just A4, A5, and A6.
If I wanted to print on A1 paper, I have to use custom.
So, does your printer/driver have the A1 setting ?
Yes I'm using the Adobe Print Driver and it has about 50 different size settings.
Is there a link to properly do this. I'm getting beyond frustrated now.
A1 is 23.39 × 33.11 in inches. Say you want to print at 150dpi in landscape format, you'll need a bitmap with these dimensions:
x: 33.11 * 150 = 4966 pixel
y: 23.39 * 150 = 3508 pixel
This does not take any printer margins into account through. If you know those, you can deduct their size from the inch value.
I'm using CutePDF (the free version) for my pdf printing which works very well.
Note that - as Joachim says - the CC3 drawing only needs to have the correct ratio of x:y, as you can set the print or export size to anything you want.
I got it. Man I can't believe it took this long.
Although I still can't get it to work with Adobe PDF Print Driver for PDF Creator I had to do this
Print -> Cute PDF Writer -> Properties -> Advanced -> Paper Size -> Post Script Custom Page Size -> enter values.
It is just so weird that with the other pdf driver I can print any size except A0 and A1.
Thanks for all the help. Finally one step of frustration is over.