# How to put a hex grid on a map?



## KeithHays (Jan 28, 2004)

Gentlefolk:
I was wondering if someone had a good, simple method to superimpose a hex grid on, say, a .jpg so that I could print it out as a gameboard.  I just got _Fields of Blood_ and would like to let my players battle across the landscape they've been exploring lately.  Any ideas?


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## Hypersmurf (Jan 28, 2004)

KeithHays said:
			
		

> Gentlefolk:
> I was wondering if someone had a good, simple method to superimpose a hex grid on, say, a .jpg so that I could print it out as a gameboard.  I just got _Fields of Blood_ and would like to let my players battle across the landscape they've been exploring lately.  Any ideas?




Use a layer?

A Google Image search on "Hex Grid" should find you a grid with no trouble... then add it as a layer in something like Photoshop or PSP over top of your .JPG.

One of the special Layer types (Screen, or Multiply, or Darken, or something  ) will probably even drop the white out so you don't need to mess around with selecting just the grid-lines and not the background of the hexes...

-Hyp.


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## Hypersmurf (Jan 28, 2004)

Okay - here's an example (see attachments).

The hex grid is added as a Multiply Layer at 40% opacity.

Is that the sort of thing you had in mind?

-Hyp.


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## James Heard (Jan 28, 2004)

KeithHays said:
			
		

> Gentlefolk:
> I was wondering if someone had a good, simple method to superimpose a hex grid on, say, a .jpg so that I could print it out as a gameboard.  I just got _Fields of Blood_ and would like to let my players battle across the landscape they've been exploring lately.  Any ideas?



Sometimes the hex grids are something like a scanned image of a hex grid. In which case I set them as the top layer in PS, set the layer mode to multiply or darken or color depending on what looks best, and sometimes I clone the layer for good measure if it's not dark enough with the same layer mode. If I were going to have to scale a scanned hex image to any degree I might isolate the lines as a selection after scaling and darken the entire selection, because scanned images have an awful lot of of gray in there sometimes and worse things like discolorations from the paper. It's good to get rid of things like that.

I have no idea how someone would do it another way. I can speak from experience that attempting to make your own hexpaper in Illustrator ended up with me being frustrated beyond belief. If anyone has a ready procedure for THAT task I'm all ears.


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## KeithHays (Jan 28, 2004)

Hmmm... well, I don't have Photoshop, so I guess that's out.  I know there's some software out there that will let you make hex maps from scratch - maybe I'll try to find that.  Didn't realize it would be that difficult, but I guess it was too much to hope Paint could do something that sophisticated.


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## Hypersmurf (Jan 28, 2004)

KeithHays said:
			
		

> Didn't realize it would be that difficult, but I guess it was too much to hope Paint could do something that sophisticated.




Believe it or not, you _can_ do it in Paint.

You can 'eyeball' a perfect hexagon with the Line tool.

Make sure your background colour is white.

The vertical line is easy - hold the shift key.

The 60 degree line... well, shift will get you 45 degrees.  From there, angle it a little bit more until you get a line that has no jags. That's 60 degrees.

Make your sixty degree line a little bit longer than the vertical line.

Select a box around those two lines, copy, paste, flip horizontal.  Now you have two diagonals and two verticals.  Copy, paste, flip vertical... and shift what you just pasted up and down until the vertical lines are the same length as the diagonals.  It might take a couple of tries to get it perfect, but it's not too hard.

Copy, paste... and mate up your second hexagon with your first one.  Build a small cluster by repeatedly pasting... then copy your cluster and do it faster.

You can make a perfect hex grid this way.

Now copy the grid to your clipboard, and open your map file.  Paste the hex grid.  If your background colour is white, you should get just the lines.

This is nowhere near as simple as doing it in Photoshop, but it _can_ be done.

The biggest problem is that you can't really resize your grid easily... you need to get it right from the start, or it looks awful.

-Hyp.


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## Neruda7 (Mar 12, 2004)

James Heard said:
			
		

> I have no idea how someone would do it another way. I can speak from experience that attempting to make your own hexpaper in Illustrator ended up with me being frustrated beyond belief. If anyone has a ready procedure for THAT task I'm all ears.




James,
My process is fairly simple and not at all frustrating. 
I open a new file in CorelDraw and select the "Graph Paper Tool" from the toolbar. 
I then designate the amount of squares in the grid (usually around 40 x40). 
I then select the grid and change the color of the lines to the appropriate color that I desire. 
I then export the file as a transparent GIF. 
I now have a grid that I can paste into any file. Or start it as the background for a new image I want to work on. The grid lines show up, while the background is nicely transparent. 

I hope someone finds this helpful...
Regards,
Scott


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## shawnbrown (May 21, 2004)

*Hex-Grid Tool Kit*

In April I put a hex-grid tool kit online. It's a collection of geometrically regular hexagon tiles. 

The images are pre-sized to 50-, 100-, and 200-pixel hexes for screen use and 16mm, 21mm, 30mm, 33mm, 1", 1.5", and 4" hexes for print-quality work (at 300dpi).

You can use the images to create a grid quite easily in Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop, or any other decent graphics program. 

You can download it at this page...
http://www.shawnbrown.com/portfolio/iraq.html

 ​


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## frankthedm (May 21, 2004)

look like square

acts like hex


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## pogre (Jun 18, 2004)

shawnbrown said:
			
		

> In April I put a hex-grid tool kit online. It's a collection of geometrically regular hexagon tiles.
> 
> The images are pre-sized to 50-, 100-, and 200-pixel hexes for screen use and 16mm, 21mm, 30mm, 33mm, 1", 1.5", and 4" hexes for print-quality work (at 300dpi).
> 
> ...




Thanks Shawn! I love the Warrior Knights in Iraq board. Warrior Knights is a great old game!


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