Any ideas?

[Moorcrys]

Maybe one of you computer artist-types or image wizzes can give me some advice...

I've been remaking my homebrew world maps in the new Campaign Cartographer 3 and they're turning out beautifully. I've had the idea of saving it in some kind of format so I can take it in or send it off to a printer-service to get my maps 'enlarged' instead of on an 8x11 piece of paper. I was kinda hoping to get them in some kind of 'wall mount' size so I could pull 'em out and hang 'em up while we played. Not massive, mind you, but big enough to see clearly on a wall.

CC3 allows the files to be saved in a multitude of formats, all of which I know nothing about... is there a standard format that I can save a file in that will keep the quality of the image the same? I tried using a BMP format and it was all pixelly. I'm loathe to go through my color ink cartridge to test all the save types.

I'm sure people have done something like I'm thinking of, I'm just an ignorant when it comes to this stuff. Any ideas or am I just screwed?
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Moorcrys

[gideon_thorne]

TIFF format, definitely.

You also need to save it at 300 dpi or better.
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"We'll go out through the kitchen!" Tanis Half-Elven

Peter Bradley

[ZeornWarlock]

gideon_thorne wrote:
TIFF format, definitely.

You also need to save it at 300 dpi or better.

I agree with Peter here. 150 DPI is what most printing magazines use, so 300 DPI will get the best results. And yes, you can't go wrong with TIFF although 300 DPI JPGs look good too.

ZW.

[Moorcrys]

Thanks guys!
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Moorcrys

[Omote]

So the question is, how good is CC3? Better then CC2 in your opinion, harder to use, etc?

.................................................Omote

FPQ
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> Omote's Advanced C&C stuff <
Duke Omote Landwehr, Holy Order of the FPQ ~ Prince of the Castles & Crusades Society

[Moorcrys]

It's a bit more user friendly than CC2 and not as buggy... and it lets me do almost anything I want the way I want, which I like. If you like and use CC2 at all then CC3 is a no brainer.

I'm no expert with it, and I purchased the Tome of Ultimate Mapping which has helped enormously (though that's actually written for CC2, the tips help for CC3). I think that if you hate CC2 then CC3 won't be enough of a change for you. I tried using Dunjinni and while the interface is much simpler I simply couldn't do what I wanted to with it -- broad overland maps to start with.

The maps I've made with CC3, I must say, look really great -- a huge step up from CC2 in my opinion... the land features are rendered beautifully, and there's a bit of randomness to it so that if you place mountains, for instance, it will cycle randomly through a number of different 'mountain tiles' as you drop them in which saves time and looks fantastic (or if you hate that you can place exactly the tile you want as well). If I can get the maps somewhere to be seen I'll show you a link. It makes my maps look as professional as they're ever going to look and that's made it worth the price three times over. With CC2 I thought, "Yeah my maps look okay enough... but I wish..."
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Moorcrys

[Moorcrys]

So my save as didn't have a TIFF option... these are my options:

BMP Bitmap file

JPEG Bitmap file

PNG Bitmap file

Rectangular Section BMP

Rectangular Section JPEG

Rectangular Section PNG

EMF Enhanced Metafile

Autocad DWG File

Autocad DXF File

All Text in File

I will try the JPEG and see how it turns out... do you guys know what these other options are?
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Moorcrys

[Omote]

I can;t help you with the saving options/extensions, but I would like to thank you for your great review of CC3. That helps me out a lot.
.................................................Omote

FPQ
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> Omote's Advanced C&C stuff <
Duke Omote Landwehr, Holy Order of the FPQ ~ Prince of the Castles & Crusades Society

[Moorcrys]

NP Omote!

Thanks for the advice guys, it turns out my question is a little more complicated than I thought... the tech support peeps at ProFantasy are looking into it... they don't even know.
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Moorcrys

[gideon_thorne]

Moorcrys wrote:
NP Omote!

Thanks for the advice guys, it turns out my question is a little more complicated than I thought... the tech support peeps at ProFantasy are looking into it... they don't even know.

k. Save it as a JPG, then open it in photoshop and resave it as a TIFF
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"We'll go out through the kitchen!" Tanis Half-Elven

Peter Bradley