Printing/exporting battle maps

jedius

So I've managed to eke out my first dungeon map and I'd like to print it to PDF. It's too big for one page with 1"/5' resolution though so I tried tiling when printing to CutePDF. I ran into two issues here:

1) Program keeps crashing when I try to do tiled output with sheets on
2) Preview seems to indicate (as does this thread: http://forum.profantasy.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=2013) that my lighting effects will break because CC3 only renders effects for the current page.

First question: Is there a way around this just using the native print to CC3?

Second question: the other thread suggests exporting to PNG or some sort. Are there recommended settings for doing so to have a good print (e.g. resolution)? Also, I tried loading up an exported PNG to GIMP and cannot find any way to ensure it tiles the image. I have had success in the past using Masterplan, the software I use for planning my D&D campaign, but it's clunky and I'd like to learn a better way. FWIW I am coming from a MapTool background. Thoughts?

Thanks!
jedius

Ralf

If you're printing to pdf and the page is too small, you can change the pdf page size instead of tiling. This will preserve lighting effects across tiles and you can use Adobe PDFs native tile printing to split it up later if you need to.

jedius

Thanks, that's a good idea. I tried a few times with 22x36in paper and it kept crashing - then I lowered it to 600dpi and still crashed. I finally got it to work with 300dpi, but sadly it's still got this annoying black border (see attached image) I'll have to figure out how to trim out (so as not to waste paper). Is there any way to help debug this crash? It seems like a pretty crucial bug.

It seems like any map that uses effects like this and is larger than a page ought to be affected by this. What do other people do? How do you make your beautiful floorplan maps usable if you can't export them as well in all their glory and resolution?

Ralf

First off, you should be able to reduce the paper size one step with that map. If you print portrait instead of landscape it should still fit.

Or even better, you can set a custom paper size that exactly fits your map. How large is your floorplan? 50' by 75' or similar? If you print to scale (5' = 1"), set a page size of 10" by 15" and your map should fit exactly, getting rid of the black area. Since you are printing to pdf, page margins do not matter.

Unfortunately the size/resolution limitation is not something that can easily be fixed. Personally I printed my Deadlands battlemaps at A1 size and 300dpi, which always worked fine and gave great quality.

Dogtag

Wow, I really like the textures in that map, especially the floor. But the dais and the pillars look great too. Nice!

Cheers,
~Dogtag

Mappy

Hello Jedius.
I use PDFCreator with great results as long as you are patient.

For best quality PDF’s I print at 1200dpi (if I go higher the program crashes). 1200 is probably overkill, but I'm all about overkill

If you go to install PDFCreator use the “expert” install option because it will try to install Images2PDF and PDFArchitect which you do not need, especially if you have Adobe Reader, so uncheck those options.

I’m currently having a go with the latest version; 2.0 which appears to work well and the interface is not as confusing as the previous version I had (v1.7.3). I think I have got the settings figured out and will include screenshots of what I have selected.
In the settings you can compress the PDF (look for options to do with jpg compression). Uncompressed, my PDF’s ends up being about 100mb but you can zoom into over 600% without any pixilation. With the jpg compression set to “low” my PDF’s are ~10mb and still much the same quality. I have normally just stuck to the 100mb versions, but after mucking around with the settings while writing this, I think I will keep the jpg compression at “low” because I can’t see any difference.

Regardless of the version, it does take a long time to print (whether it’s CC3 or PDFCreator causing this, I don’t know, I have a suspicion it’s CC3 but doesn’t matter either way). Expect anything from 5-20 minutes. So get it printing then have a sit down outside and get some fresh air. Let it do it’s thing and you should get a high quality PDF that, as Ralph said you can use Adobe Reader’s native tiling to blow up the picture over several pages.
Anyways, here are the settings I am using for PDFCreator v2.0:

After installing, open PDFCreator by Clicking Start --> All Programs --> PDFCreator --> PDFCreator & click the Profile Settings box:
[Image_3803]

Type Inputfilename with the arrow symobls into the title box and add the author name if you want:
[Image_3804]

Yup, same again here:
[Image_3805]

I dont think I changed anything here:
[Image_3806]

Untick Open files with PDF Architect as hopefully you have not installed it, then Adobe Reader will open automatically once the PDF is saved:
[Image_3807]

I just cranked the colours up as high as they would go and have not played around with the resolution or quality values yet:
[Image_3808]

I dont think I changed anything here:
[Image_3809]

Here I changed the JPG Compression from Auto to Low. Mucking around with this will change the final image size from ~2mb upto ~100mb (for me anways). Once you've made those changes, click save and hopefully you will be good to go
[Image_3811]

And here we are back in CC3: File --> Print --> Printer Name --> PDFCreator --> Properties --> Advanced --> Print Quality 1200dpi
[Image_3812]

Hopefully I've decribed this well enough and it works.
Cheers
Mappy.

jedius

Thanks for the responses! Also, thanks Dogtag for the encouraging comments on my first map

I ended up using Ralf's suggestion of a custom page size. I was able to print it at 600 dpi without crashing. I suspect the next map I make though will be larger. Fortunately I don't think I'll require special lighting. If so I might try the PDFCreator option.