mjlush
2013-02-10, 10:09 AM
I've been experimenting with budget A0 (841 × 1189mm) map printing using PosteRazor (http://posterazor.sourceforge.net/) to break up the map so it can be printed on A4 or A3 sheets sticking them together with scotch tape, then laminating them with sticky back plastic and I though I'd share my experiences.
The first surprise was the number of game ready maps floating round freely on the internet in some ways the maps of real locations can be more useful than the fantacy maps as they often come with exterior views and photos.
Google Image search for castle floor plans (http://goo.gl/B6eZW) yields a host of candidate maps often they come with exterior photos or drawings. Its possible to improve the quality of the maps by using the search tools to only return Large images (http://goo.gl/DOo9g), additionally map, maps, floorplan and floor plan produces a slightly different sets of results (or at least ordering :-).
A couple of good sites I've found are Randwulf maps (http://randwulf.com/hogwarts/Bavaria.html) and the The New Mount Carmel Foundation, Inc (http://www.newmountcarmelfoundation.org/buildingplan.php) the floorplan is here (http://www.newmountcarmelfoundation.org/images/new_large_floor.jpg)
I think the most valuable tip I have is don't try to stick together two rows of A3 sheets the smallest error in putting together the first two pages can get magnified so whole walls and rooms can vanish at the far end of the map.
Its possible to buy A3 paper on a roll so you can make a doubled A3 page (297 × 840mm) so sticking the pages together becomes a 1 dimensional puzzle rather than a 2D one I guess you could get similar A4 paper...
Many A3 printers will print custom pages of that size, though be warned I got an HP 7500 which said that it would do custom pages, only to find they weren't supported by the windows drivers you either had to use the previous printer drivers (I think it was the hp 7000) or the Linux drivers worked fine.
The first surprise was the number of game ready maps floating round freely on the internet in some ways the maps of real locations can be more useful than the fantacy maps as they often come with exterior views and photos.
Google Image search for castle floor plans (http://goo.gl/B6eZW) yields a host of candidate maps often they come with exterior photos or drawings. Its possible to improve the quality of the maps by using the search tools to only return Large images (http://goo.gl/DOo9g), additionally map, maps, floorplan and floor plan produces a slightly different sets of results (or at least ordering :-).
A couple of good sites I've found are Randwulf maps (http://randwulf.com/hogwarts/Bavaria.html) and the The New Mount Carmel Foundation, Inc (http://www.newmountcarmelfoundation.org/buildingplan.php) the floorplan is here (http://www.newmountcarmelfoundation.org/images/new_large_floor.jpg)
I think the most valuable tip I have is don't try to stick together two rows of A3 sheets the smallest error in putting together the first two pages can get magnified so whole walls and rooms can vanish at the far end of the map.
Its possible to buy A3 paper on a roll so you can make a doubled A3 page (297 × 840mm) so sticking the pages together becomes a 1 dimensional puzzle rather than a 2D one I guess you could get similar A4 paper...
Many A3 printers will print custom pages of that size, though be warned I got an HP 7500 which said that it would do custom pages, only to find they weren't supported by the windows drivers you either had to use the previous printer drivers (I think it was the hp 7000) or the Linux drivers worked fine.