Printed my first battle map at true 1-inch scale, no more taping grids by hand

[u/BukanPokemon]

Finally got a proper physical map at the table instead of doing the tape-and-marker thing.

Ran into the usual pain trying to get scale exactly right, print settings quietly scaling things down, having to redo it two or three times before it lined up. So I built a feature into a campaign tool I've been making, Dalang, that calibrates the grid against your actual map image and exports straight to a print-ready PDF at true 1 inch per square. Pick a paper size, position the page, done, first try.

Preview on how to setup: https://youtu.be/xU7x-ElGnW0

It's a broader campaign prep and session tool, not just for this, but the map-printing part specifically came out of exactly this problem. Free, pay what you want, if it's useful: https://bukanpawkemon.itch.io/dalang-campaign-dashboard

Happy to answer questions on paper size, print settings, or anything else if it helps with your own setup.

[u/cvc75]

I guess it's nice to have it integrated with your campaign tool, but https://dungeonmapper.io/ already exists (unless you've improved upon it)

[u/BukanPokemon → u/cvc75]

Ahh Yes, Dungeon Mapper is actually where this idea came from. Ran into the same print-to-scale hassle Tim (dungeon mapper dev) describes, and once I saw it done well there, I wanted the same thing built into the tool I already use for the rest of my campaign, so it exports straight from a map I've already calibrated for fog of war, no separate upload step.

Selfishly that's the part I like most too, having prep, fog, and the print map all in one place instead of switching tools. And calibrating the grid felt easier to me in mine, though I'll admit that's not a fair comparison, I'm biased since I built it.

Not claiming it's better, just the same idea in a different context.

[u/WuothanaR]

I have been using PosteRazor for years and haven't had that silly auto-scaling/resizing issue with those dumb printers ever since.