Any software or web-app suggestions based on these specific needs?

[Wraithward]

Hello all. I'm looking for a map-making solution that'd be simplistic to use and with clean, high-contrasting elements, as I am visually handicapped.

I've been a casual dabbler in D&D, PF, and a few others for just shy of the past 6 years -- but have always been torn on the overall usefulness of maps. I have a preference for theater-of-the-mind based encounters, but do find there times and places for a well-made encounter map. The problem is... I am half-blind, with one eye long past completely non-functional and have gone through a surgery in the past year-and-a-half that has left my definitive vision fairly poor. For example, in order to read or look at anything {on a 1366x768 resolution desktop}, I have to have a fullscreen magnification of anywhere between 350% and 800% zoom. (Windows uers can use the 'Win key' and '+' to emulate the experience, if you'd like.) As a result, the process for prepping as a DM has had to be streamlined considerably -- going so far as to switch systems (Open Legend) to cut down on the busywork that comes with session planning.

Just... I don't have a solution for map-making anymore. Historically, it's always been crudely drawn MSPaint, Roll20, or RPGMaker compilations just out of lazy convienence, but I've divorced all of those options to find something a little cleaner and that will snap to a grid upon creation. I own Photoshop, but have never put in the effort to learn it due to the perceived high-intricacy of creating maps that way.

I've tried ANAMap, which I like, but would like to find something capable of supporting larger creations. I've also looked at Ilwinters Floorplan Generator (on Steam) due to it's relatively simplistic promise of click-drag creations, but the program itself is clunky and oddly missing features expected of basic design software. Furthermore, it's various textures are rather low-res and busy looking, making the end result staggeringly bad when your visual acuity is already somewhat blurry and easily clouded.

Going on down the list, I've looked at the various map makers and -ographers from:
Dungeon Painter Studio, MapForge, Fractal Mapper, ProFantasy, and Inkwell Ideas. For the majority of this list, I suspect either similar problems to Ilwinter's; cannot afford to pay for them to try them out at present; or are just a personal preference thing against the art design for the assets used.

As I've implied, having to comb and sift through a lot of information - both visual and text - is a bit of an exercise in frustration for me. Hoping someone here can offer me a sugestion on something I hadn't thought of or to help narrow the searching field.

Thank you for your time.

[Tenia]

Hi Wraithward and welcome to the guild. You may have a look to rpg map editor (https://rpginferno.com/rpg-map-editor), very similar to ANAMap with some more tiles but I am afraid it has the same map size restriction. If you discarted Dungeon Painter Studio because it is not free, you may also try Dungeon Painter Online (http://pyromancers.com/dungeon-painter-online/), the "ancestor" of DPS. Not exactly the same product, discontinued, less tiles (not the same tiles rather) the UI is a bit similar to DPS. It is free, online, with a larger map size than ANAMap, much much more assets and you can use your own tiles.
Regards

[Wraithward]

Thank you, Tenia, or both the welcome and the suggestions. I'll have a look at both. Related question -- I am interested in Dungeon Painter Studio, but at the time of OPing I was waiting on the next paycheck. Do you know if Dungeon Painter Online is a good indication on what to expect from Studio, in terms of UI presentation?

[Tenia]

The UI are similar but not exactly the same, the screen regions and global ergonomics are very close. There are more options in DPS (it's normal, there are more features), DPS UI is white on black and menu text size is fixed, unlike DPO where, as it runs in a web browser, you can zoom in and out the whole interface.
Here is a quick video of DPS, of good quality I think, where you can get an overview of the ergonomics : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQm4sbCqSBY
I am not a Dungeon Painter specialsts though (I bought it when it came out to support the software, I think it is a good tool to quickly create encounter maps in just a few minutes but I don't use it that much), feel free to ask more precise question directly in the software forum on Steam, it is fairly active and the devs are responding quickly.

[Wraithward]

Thank you for your insights. c: I'll give it a shot.

[heruca]

Wraithward,

I'm hoping to have this content Add-On for MapForge released in the next month or so. It should allow for clean, high-contrast maps with clearly discernible symbols that you're looking for.

This video should give you an idea of the sort of look/s you'll be able to achieve.

[Woz]

Hello all. I'm looking for a map-making solution that'd be simplistic to use and with clean, high-contrasting elements, as I am visually handicapped.

....

Going on down the list, I've looked at the various map makers and -ographers from:
Dungeon Painter Studio, MapForge, Fractal Mapper, ProFantasy, and Inkwell Ideas. For the majority of this list, I suspect either similar problems to Ilwinter's; cannot afford to pay for them to try them out at present; or are just a personal preference thing against the art design for the assets used.

As I've implied, having to comb and sift through a lot of information - both visual and text - is a bit of an exercise in frustration for me. Hoping someone here can offer me a sugestion on something I hadn't thought of or to help narrow the searching field.

Thank you for your time.

I have used DPS for over a year and can recommend it highly. Simple and straight forward with a reasonable amount of usable art already included and there are some excellent video tutorials that I found helpful when I was getting started with it.
No is not free but the price on steam is so low it may as well be given how much time it saves me vs something like GIMP

[SaintSpark]

Hi Wraithward and welcome to the guild. You may have a look to rpg map editor (https://rpginferno.com/rpg-map-editor), very similar to ANAMap with some more tiles but I am afraid it has the same map size restriction. If you discarted Dungeon Painter Studio because it is not free, you may also try Dungeon Painter Online (http://pyromancers.com/dungeon-painter-online/), the "ancestor" of DPS. Not exactly the same product, discontinued, less tiles (not the same tiles rather) the UI is a bit similar to DPS. It is free, online, with a larger map size than ANAMap, much much more assets and you can use your own tiles.
Regards

Actualy we update rpginferno.com editor. It's still has size restrictions - HD 1920x1080, but we are looking for optimizing rendering system to allow maps twice the size. Also we added texture editor for custom textures and Icon editor for creating custom objects.