Creating Maps for FG

[Dax Doomslayer]

Hi Folks,
I'm just kind of starting to learn to create a 'module'/adventures by trying to take a PDF of an adventure that I bought off DM Guild and recreate it in FG. Things for the most part (so far) are going OK with the actual creation of the adventure. However, when it comes to getting the map into FG, what is the quickest; cheapest way of doing this? I have a scanned map (PDF). I know somehow I need to get that into JPEG form then once in FG add the grid. However, getting it into JPEG form is the issue. What is the easiest way to do this without having to learn additional software (if at all possible). Eventually I'll get into CC3 (which I own but haven't used since the CC2 days) but right now, I need a quick and efficient way to do this for my game tomorrow. Any advice is greatly appreciated (and please remember in your explanation I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed - lol). Thanks!!

[Zacchaeus]

GIMP is probably your best solution.

[Maasq]

Quickest way to get a jpg of the map - display it on screen as large as you'd like it to be, then press <SHIFT><PRINTSCREEN>.
Open up Gimp, paint.net or whatever, create new image, and paste it in. Then crop it down to just the map.

2nd option, maybe even better if you can be bothered - https://pyromancers.com/dungeon-painter-online/ and remake the map. It will grid it for you.

Maasq

[LordEntrails]

Several ways. Depending upon the image (and transparencies) some will work better than other.

1) Open PDF in pdf viewer (such as Adobe or xChange) select image, paste into image program
1A) If your PDF program allows, select and save as image
2) Open PDF in Gimp, select desired page and open as image (not layers)

[LordEntrails]

And third way is there are several online tools that save all images out of a PDF for you.

[Honken]

I Have actually made one or two maps using Microsoft Publisher. THey might not be fancy in anyway. But they worked for what i made them for. It worked well enough for me to continue making maps that way.

/H

[Wookiee420]

I feel like people are missing your question. Unless I am. If you have a PDF and you own Adobe Acrobat you can go to edit, then to export, then click the option for images, click the JPEG option, then click the box for all images, then click ok. this will give you a window that asks where you want to save your images from the PFG in JPEG form, save it where you want to. Then open this new image in any editing program (i use photoshop so i will tell you the setting) and hit Save As, then you can rename it what you want to and then you save it as a JPEG at quality of 4. Then you can put it the image into FG.

In my opinion, this is the easiest method to remove images from a PDF and make them a JPEG. It takes me an entire 10 minutes to do a 200plus page core pdf. Sometimes it will pull the background image from pages, you can delete those, they arent necessary to keep (this part is what takes most my time, going through and removing useless images).

[Topdecker]

This is a list of some RPG (which mean fantasy-centric) mapping software - the list is not complete, nor should the inclusion of a piece of software on this list be considered a recommendation. It's just an incomplete list, a starting point....

Steam-based software (available on the Steam store)
Arcane Mapper (https://store.steampowered.com/app/598180/Arcane_Mapper/)
Dungeon Painter Studio (https://store.steampowered.com/app/592260/Dungeon_Painter_Studio/)
Virtual Battlemap (https://store.steampowered.com/app/496490/Virtual_Battlemap/)

Regular software....
Fractal Mapper 8 (https://www.nbos.com/products/fractal-mapper)
Hexographer, Cityographer, Dungeonographer (https://www.hexographer.com/)
Campaign Cartographer 3+ (CC3+) (https://secure.profantasy.com/default.asp)

Web-based software...
Inkarnate (https://inkarnate.com/)

Not quite there yet....
MapForge (not yet released, but soon...) (https://www.mapforge-software.com/)
Dungeon Builder
(https://hobbyte.net/)

As for GiMP, Photoshop, and other pieces of graphic editing software... Good stuff if you have sufficient time to build art assets. If you want to speed this up, go to the Vintyri Project (https://www.vintyri.org/vintyri/index.htm) and download the art assets (they are in CC3+ and Fractal Mapper 8 formats - but you can still get to the individual PNG graphics). I generally use graphics software to clean-up or tweak the maps created in other software, so having some sort of editor around is a necessity.

Top

[Topdecker]

I should also say...

The quickest way to rip a map or graphic from a PDF is to use some sort of screen capture software. SNIPPING TOOL, which comes with windows, is good enough, though Greenshot is delightful and free. Size the PDF to fit; if the orientation is wrong, just rotate it inside your PDF viewer - then take the screen shot.

Top

[Gwaihir Scout]

Make sure—if you're using pre-gridded maps—that you resize the map so that each grid square is an exact number of pixels in length or you'll never get a grid to fit in FG. There's a program floating around in the forum called Map Align that makes it easy.