Getting maps from paper to computer

[Jenks3]

Hey guys, I had a quick question on something I've never had to deal with before.

For years I just ran games out of books, drawing vague maps on a chessex grid map. Then came PDFs and since then I have been displaying maps on a mounted TV in my game room. This method is very much preferred by my group and I wish to continue with it. Here's the sticky part, I want to run Out of the Abyss with my group and, of course, wizards doesn't do PDFs for 5e, at least not yet.

My question: How do you guys get battle maps from paper to computer? I know the obvious, scanner, but I was curious if you folks had any more efficient, better looking, or all around smoother methods of doing this.

Thanks!

 

[Hand of Evil]

Just want to say you may be breaking copyright doing this. I have only done this using hand drawn maps.

Not more efficient nor better than a scanner but how good is your phone? Take a pic, transfer to your PC and use a program that allows you to edit the image (Photoshop), enhance, zoom, and added elements as you see fit.

 

[Jenks3]

edit: Researching copyright info, it's a little stickier than I previously believed.


On the phone thing, I'll give it a try.

 

[gamerprinter]

Not that I would do it due to copyright reason, but I have a large format scanner that does 300 dpi color scans with extremely good results, so your point about "better looking" really doesn't apply. Besides, I'm a pro cartographer and for that reason would never use somebody elses map, I'd just make my own.

 

[sazboom]

So the option that I used in Rise of Tiamat was to buy the maps digitally from the creators. Looks like Schley and Blando are doing the same for Out of the Abyss according to another ENWorld post that I cant link to yet

 

[Bagpuss]

Jared Blando's shop for the maps - http://theredepic.bigcartel.com/category/out-of-the-abyss-digital-downloads
Mike Schley shop for the maps - http://mikeschley.zenfolio.com/p497268819

 

[JamieEvan]

I usually take a photo than edit by Photoshop. It works well.
However, sometimes it takes me a long time to get a high quality picture which is easy to edit.

 

[gamerprinter]

You can find a lot of my stuff here on ENWorld, in my Map Emporeum thread.

 

[aramis erak]

edit: Researching copyright info, it's a little stickier than I previously believed.


On the phone thing, I'll give it a try.

In the US, format shifting for personal use is expressly allowed per the LoC committee (which is granted authority in the relevant statutes).

In any case, the majority of the maps are available from the artists in electronic format.

And the first few chapters are in the encounters version.