Printing maps - how to do this affordably & with minimum headache?

Quickleaf · Mar 30, 2018

Realizing that my title may be a bit of an oxymoron, I'm looking at printing maps for my Tomb of Annihilation face-to-face game that sometimes uses miniatures.

Yes, a projector with digital maps would be ideal. No, it's not an option for me or my players at this time.

Here's a sample of one of the maps. Note that this is a publicly available version with something like 3000 x 2100 pixel resolution – lower than desirable for a 1-square=1" scale map. Mike Schley has a higher resolution version available at his website (5500 x 3800 pixels).

On Vistaprint, I can do a 36" x 48" matte photo paper color print for $25.49. Is that about par for the course? It would involve a bit of shrinking of the image but I *think* it wouldn't be too bad?

darjr · Mar 30, 2018

I bought a large format printer for $100 bucks on craigs list. A roll of 32" 300' paper is $45. Ink can be had for cheap and the cartridges are refillable. Just note that I need to print with linux and I've had to fix it several times, so it might break your pain in the butt quotient.

MNblockhead · Mar 30, 2018

Look for used large-format printers. I'm lucky to have access to a HP Designjet T790 24". My dad is a semi-retired facilities manager. When we fully retires, I'm thinking of buying it. New, these things run about 3,000 USD. You can buy them used for about a thousand less. Keep in mind that the ink and paper are also expensive for these things. But if you print a lot of battlemaps, it might pay for itself. If you have a gaming group that can go in on it or if you print for folks in your group for a small charge that can help offset the cost.

I bought the Curse of Strahd map pack from Schley and printed them all. It is nice having them all printed and ready to go.

But, all that said, even if my dad gave it to me for free, I would think twice about taking it. One, as I stated already the ink is not cheap. Two, it takes up a lot of space.

Most likely, after my current campaign wraps up, I'll probably invest in a flat screen that I can lay flat on a table and VTT software. It is just so much more affordable and convenient to do it this way now that the cost of displays have come down so much.

A screen+VTT makes more sense than printing, even when using minis for many reasons including:

1. Large sheets of paper can get unwieldy at the table. With a screen, you just move the image around as the party explores.

2. Large sheets of paper take up a lot of space. You have to store them. I have thousands of digital maps in Evernote, nicely folded and tagged. Available on my laptop and my phone.

3. Scaling is easier. Many battlemap PDFs are not scaled correctly for printing at 1":5' scale. Almost no JPGs are. So you need to resize for printing, which requires more prep time. VTTs make it much easy to load a battlemap image and quickly measure out the scale to properly resize it.

4. Fog of war and incremental reveal are a pain in the rear with paper. VTTs make this much easier.

Paper, however, is much more convenient when running public games. I don't want to lug around technology and worry about plugs or technical issues if running a public game. I can just roll up my paper maps in a poster tube and bring a masking tap to hold the paper down at the table. I also prefer pre-printed paepr maps to Chessex battlemaps or tiles because I don't need to spend time drawing out a map or dealing with setting up tiles. But for how little I run publich games, it would make more sense to just pay to print if I didn't have easy access to a large-format printer.

If I had to money to open a lifestyle business, I would open a hobby store with tables that have displays built into their surfaces that gamers could rent by the hour and the DM could just plug in a laptop or make wireless connection from a laptop, tablet, or phone. Heck, maybe I'd also have a large-scale printer in back to print battlemaps on site.

Quickleaf · Mar 30, 2018

Thanks for the tip [MENTION=52905]darjr[/MENTION]! I always assumed large format printers were in the $1000-$4000 range (like what [MENTION=6796661]MNblockhead[/MENTION] uses) and too big for the cottage I rent, but I'll have to check out my options on ebay and craigslist more closely if some sell for just $100.

While I appreciate how convenient a screen + VTT setup is, I'm not the one hosting games, the place I rent probably isn't well-suited, and that's a larger investment of time and money than I'm looking for right now. Maybe down the road.

So I looked over this one map, counting the squares...

[SBLOCK=map image]

[/SBLOCK]

...and *think* printing it at 1-square = 1" scale would meant printing it on a 36" (3 ft) high x 54" (4.5 ft) wide sheet.

Unfortunately, exceeding 48" (4 ft) dramatically bumps up the prince on the various online printing shops I'm looking at (www.vivyx.com and www.vistaprint.com) and also gets unwieldy for the table we play at (my largest wet-erase mat is 34.5" x 48", and that *barely* fits). So I'm wondering if I could get away with scaling it down to 88.88% of its original size, which I believe would let me print at 32" (2.66 ft) x 48" (4 ft).

Would 0.88" squares be cutting it too close for playing with minis? Or would it work OK?

darjr · Mar 30, 2018

I have printed with squares smaller than an inch.
It works fine. Here is one from Dyson Logos

Doc_Klueless · Mar 30, 2018

I used something similar to this link ( https://www.staples.com/sbd/content/copyandprint/engineering-prints.html ) to print off a full color HUGE (48 x 60) map of Faerun that looks amazing. Definitely good enough for Face-to-Face Tabletop Gaming.

darkbard · Mar 30, 2018

Have you heard of PosterRazor, which will slice up a large image into smaller images that can be printed to standard paper and then reassembled? Totally free app available via a basic web search.

MNblockhead · Mar 31, 2018

darkbard said:
Have you heard of PosterRazor, which will slice up a large image into smaller images that can be printed to standard paper and then reassembled? Totally free app available via a basic web search.

I use Poster Razor when I don’t have time to drive over to use Myra’s printer. But I really hate puzzling together a large battle ap from multiple pages. It is also hard to keep them flat and in place on the table. But if you have no other one too , this is a good tool to spice up a big image into letter sized chunks.

MarkB · Mar 31, 2018

Well, you can obviously cut down the borders and only print out the actual rooms. But beyond that, with the way parts of that map are strung out, you could economise further still. Trim off that top-right room and corridor, and you can make the image significantly shorter. Then print it on a separate A4 so that you can lay it down if necessary.

Nebulous · May 5, 2019

Old thread I wanted to revive. I've lost access to the color plot printer I had been using in Tomb. I had everything printed in gorgeous color up to the Fane; none of the Tomb itself is printed, and I can't bear the thought of taping hundreds of pages together again, it is such a pain the behind.

So...I either find an affordable way to plot print the maps, or I need to invest in a LCD. Problem is that I don't currently play at my home, and if I did, I have nowhere to put a dedicated game table. So paper is the best way to go now.