What resolution do you design at?

[Cunning Cartographer]

Currently knocking up various battle maps for sale on DriveThruRPG and I was curious as to what resolution other people design their maps at. As a graduate that did Graphic Design I always used to design at 300dpi, the pdf guidelines on DriveThru say 150dpi and I know from talks with Torstan that he designs some of his maps on DriveThru at 100dpi simply because designing them at a larger scale would take a lot longer (and honestly with the size and detail of some of my poster maps I think my own computer would set on fire). I've been designing at 100dpi but I'm starting to wonder whether this is going to lead to a terrible print (they're designed at 1" square size so they don't need to be upscaled).

[Jalyha]

I don't even know where to find/set the DPi thingy

[Cunning Cartographer]

If you're using Gimp or Photoshop you set it when you create a new file (or can change it through the "Image" settings [PS]). Default is 72dpi and that's basically the default for screen/web.

[- Max -]

I Don't know for GIMP, but in PS, it's in Images/Image size.

Currently knocking up various battle maps for sale on DriveThruRPG and I was curious as to what resolution other people design their maps at. As a graduate that did Graphic Design I always used to design at 300dpi, the pdf guidelines on DriveThru say 150dpi and I know from talks with Torstan that he designs some of his maps on DriveThru at 100dpi simply because designing them at a larger scale would take a lot longer (and honestly with the size and detail of some of my poster maps I think my own computer would set on fire). I've been designing at 100dpi but I'm starting to wonder whether this is going to lead to a terrible print (they're designed at 1" square size so they don't need to be upscaled).

300 DPI is the standard resolution for print, though for poster sizes, 150 DPI looks a fine resolution. I would say that's 200 DPI or higher is ok for non poster maps Going under this value would give some low/bad quality prints.

[Jalyha]

So... which one makes a better picture? The 300 or the 72?

I'm so lost..

[- Max -]

For print, the more DPI you have, the more quality you have. 72 DPI is a standard resolution for web/screen use while 300 DPI or higher is standard resolution for professional print.

[Jalyha]

Well... all mine are at 72 dpi, then, I suppose, since I never messed with that...

Does that affect why my images look really bad when I make them smaller to fit the forum size limit? (Wait does higher dpi affect the file size too?)

[Gamerprinter]

I use a vector drawing program, so drawing units for me is in inches - at the design stage, there is no such thing as pixels, and resolution is meaningless.

Once the entire map is created at whatever dimensions in inches, such as 8.5 x 11, 18 x 24, or 36 x 96 inches, only upon export to a graphic file format does resolution come into play. In whatever format I choose (usually JPG), I export at anything between VT scale 50 pixels per inch up to 300 ppi. If the map was intended for use in a Virtual Tabletop application, I would export at the best resolution for that given application; Roll20 is 70 dpi for example. Because the map is in its designed file format (.XAR) I can freely export multiple resolutions and file formats from the same design. I don't usually need to rescale the map for any reason, but as a vector file, I can do this as well. That is if the design was created at 18 x 24, I could easily rescale this to 36 x 48, prior to export.

300 ppi resolution maps are intended for print, while all smaller resolutions are for either downloadable PDF scale (96 ppi), or other specific VT required ppi resolution.

@Jalyha - dpi definitely affects the file size. Consider that Anna Meyer just sent me her most recent Greyhawk map for printing, its a PDF at 36" x 48", 300 ppi and the file is 460 MB in size. She had sent me an uncompressed JPG and that was over 1.6 GB, but I had problems sending that to the printer.

[Kennyt]

I use a vector drawing program, so drawing units for me is in inches - at the design stage, there is no such thing as pixels, and resolution is meaningless.

Once the entire map is created at whatever dimensions in inches, such as 8.5 x 11, 18 x 24, or 36 x 96 inches, only upon export to a graphic file format does resolution come into play. In whatever format I choose (usually JPG), I export at anything between VT scale 50 pixels per inch up to 300 ppi. If the map was intended for use in a Virtual Tabletop application, I would export at the best resolution for that given application; Roll20 is 70 dpi for example. Because the map is in its designed file format (.XAR) I can freely export multiple resolutions and file formats from the same design. I don't usually need to rescale the map for any reason, but as a vector file, I can do this as well. That is if the design was created at 18 x 24, I could easily rescale this to 36 x 48, prior to export.

300 ppi resolution maps are intended for print, while all smaller resolutions are for either downloadable PDF scale (96 ppi), or other specific VT required ppi resolution.

@Jalyha - dpi definitely affects the file size. Consider that Anna Meyer just sent me her most recent Greyhawk map for printing, its a PDF at 36" x 48", 300 ppi and the file is 460 MB in size. She had sent me an uncompressed JPG and that was over 1.6 GB, but I had problems sending that to the printer.

Hello, just reading through this forum - I use roll20 and been slowly trying to make my maps outside of roll20 instead of the EASY way inside roll 20 (just cause i want to actually "own" my maps) so my first attempt HERE, looks fairly good for my first try but when i import it into roll20 i have to stretch it a bit (i think i made the squares to small at 50x50) do you know what roll20 square size is by any chance? i'd like to remake my map into one that i don't have to distort inside the program. Thanks!

[Kennyt]

Oops nevermind - found it! https://wiki.roll20.net/Image_Best_Practices_for_Roll20
and https://wiki.roll20.net/Mapping_with_Gimp