# Best Mapmaking software



## Mirkurnas (Jan 27, 2009)

A quite simple question actually: which mapmaking software do you prefer? I havent used any yet, but I really want to give it a try. I even made a 5gb partitipation and installed Win XP on my macbook. Seems like there are no Mac OS compatible Mapmaking programs.


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## torstan (Jan 28, 2009)

I'd recommend Gimp (free software that runs on any platform. Just google it). If you want some good advice on mapmaking and mapmaking software head over to the cartographer's guild (Cartographers Guild :: Homepage). The tutorials section will give you good advice for mapmaking with almost any software.


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## Sigurd (Jan 28, 2009)

Torstan's game maps are as good as any I've ever seen. I'd trust his advice.

The Gimp and Paint.net or Inkscape are all really good choices because, well, they're free. You may find they give you everything you need.

What you choose will depend on what you expect or need.  Speaking broadly....

If you can draw elements (houses, hills, buildings, durngeons etc...) free hand then you will probably want a drawing program. Vector drawing or raster drawing:

Vector - Paint.net, Inkscape, Corel Draw$, Adobe Illustrator$$
Raster - The Gimp, Corel Painter$, Adobe Photoshop$$

(And many others.


Another approach is sort of the stamp collecting approach. You gather your elements from other artists or third parties. You can of course make your own elements too but the elegant part here is you dont have to.

Campaign Cartographer uses this approach in a Cad program which is elegant because the vector shapes scale very easily and rotate\render cleanly.

Dundjinni also uses this approach but the elements are raster not vector - overlay a picture of a building on a picture of a field. 


Their are many other products and the above products have more value than I have listed. If you have an eye for maps you can accomplish beautiful work with almost any graphics package.

Thats why I'd start with the free packages and give www. cartographersguild.com a look. Lots of friendly people. There's even some work by Torstan!


Sigurd


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## Silverblade The Ench (Jan 28, 2009)

Paint Shop Pro is good, similar ot Photoshop but MUCH cheaper 

Campaign Cartographer is outstanding, but an utter pain to use.

you can also use 3D proggies for,well, less map making and more visualizations of areas:
See my older stuff in that vein:
Erynavar, Adventures


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## Jupp (Jan 30, 2009)

Interesting enough I just had the same question about a week ago. I've used Dundjinni before but the software was not really powerful enough for my tastes and it uses too many system resources for the relatively small maps I tried to do with it. 

I also wanted to make battlemaps for our next Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk session this Friday. So I've just jumped into the water and purchased Campaign Cartographer +  Dungeon Designer 3 on Sunday. I've heard (and saw) some bad things about the cluttered UI in CC2 but when I had a look at the screenshots of the CC3 UI I thought that it wasn't really that bad so I made the blind purchase for CC3 and Dungeon Designer 3. 

What did really help me was a very nice set of youtube movies from joesweeney88 about Campaign Cartographer and Dungeon Designer. I built the dungeon in the tutorial while having it run in the background. After that tutorial I was able to build the first battlemap for the campaign and I have to say it looks very professional for the time I have invested so far for learning the product. Two days later I had all the 5 maps I needed to be prepared for the next gaming session and probably another session as well (Tower of War, the whole the Arena level, for those that know EttRoG).

The maps have shadowed walls, lighting, props, everything that makes them nice and sweet so they look pretty fancy after being printed out on a plotter in A2/A1 format. The whole sheets and layers functions really do help in creating impressive looking maps without having to fumble around in additional applications like Gimp or Photoshop.

As a conclusion I have to say that CC3 is not that hard and complicated to learn as some people might think. And CC3 is certainly not as hard to use as CC2, which I've tried some years ago for a short while.

Just my 2 cents.

Oh, and I really suggest watching those youtube tutorials. They will save you alot of questions and forum digging.


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## Redrobes (Jan 31, 2009)

Another Cartographers Guild member here and yes its the place to go for all sorts of advice on all apps w.r.t map making. I write the one in the sig here any Q's let me know - always willing to help out.


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## heruca (Feb 2, 2009)

Here are links to a number of map-making programs, several of which are Mac-compatible. I recommend Dundjinni for making battlemaps, but other programs are better-suited for continent/world maps.


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## Thanee (Feb 3, 2009)

Jupp said:


> After that tutorial I was able to build the first battlemap for the campaign and I have to say it looks very professional for the time I have invested so far for learning the product.




That does sound really promising. 

Once I have a decent color laser printer, I will probably want some nice cartography/floorplan program as well.

Bye
Thanee


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## Knightfall (Feb 5, 2009)

Silverblade The Ench said:


> Campaign Cartographer is outstanding, but an utter pain to use.



Silverblade is right, CC2 (and now CC3) is a great program. It's a pain to use if you don't take the time to learn how to use it right. It has a high learning curve, so it isn't for everyone. I have been using it for a LONG time so I instinctively know how to use it.


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## Jürgen Hubert (Feb 8, 2009)

Inkscape and GIMP - both are available for free.

Take a look at these tutorials for them...


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## calebhand (Oct 16, 2011)

*Can you use these as battlemats?*

I've been looking at some of the map making softwares, but I haven't seen one that can be used for an active battlemat. Are there any that you can display, on a big tv for instance, and move characters/monsters around? What about having features for shading out places without light sources?


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## heruca (Oct 16, 2011)

Most virtual tabletop software can be used this way, by running it on a laptop hooked up to an HDTV. Just make sure you use a VT that allows for dynamic map creation and has a good Fog of War feature. The less interface clutter on the VT, the better.


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## Vascant (Oct 16, 2011)

YACGM (Yet Another Cartographers Guild Member) here, I use Adobe Photoshop and love it.  Gimp also works if price is an issue and understandably.  

If you do go in these directions I cannot recommend enough a Wacom tablet, using a mouse is okay for doing small tough ups and such but as soon as you need to do something serious or want decent results.. Get one.

Finally, there will be a learning curve... expect it.  It has taken me years of playing just to finally get some level of decent maps (imo of course).  It is worth it though, no longer will you be offering your players stick men on graph paper and your maps will have a personality which will be the first step to setting the mood for the encounter and dungeon.  As they say, first impressions are everything


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## Hand of Evil (Oct 17, 2011)

Always a hard question to answer, because everyone's mapping needs are different and a lot; is how much time you put into mapping.  I say download demos and find the best software for your needs and the one you like.

Top of the line is Campaign Cartographer but even now, still has a learning curve to it.    

NBOS is an alternative: Fractal Mapper v8.0

Paint programs like Photoshop can be costly and take some time.  

Look to the Cartographers Guild!


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## jcayer (Oct 17, 2011)

No love for maptools yet?
I moved to it from Dunjinni.  Being a virtual table top, you can place tokens, do lighting, all of that jazz.
On top of that, it's java based so it should run natively on the Mac.


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## Mark CMG (Oct 17, 2011)

Hand of Evil said:


> NBOS (. . .)Fractal Mapper v8.0
> 
> (.  .) Photoshop (. . .)
> 
> ...





That's me in a nutshell.  I use NBOS for the broad strokes then work things over with Photoshop.  Creatiing whole cloth in Pphotoshop just starts me adrift with no initial rudder, so it helps if I can at least get some idea out quickly using NBOS.

As repeated above, The Cartographers Guild is a plce to explore for unlimited inspiration and tips.


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## nedjer (Oct 21, 2011)

The hold-up with mapping ain't the software or the layout. Inkscape, SumoPaint (good, cutdown, online Photoshop alike) and such like will give great results for free if Coreldraw and Illustrator are too much/ expensive.
(Strongly recommend vector followed by filters in raster software to get resizing and easy re-use of vector elements).

The hold-up is in putting together good quality icon sets, as it's making the symbols that takes time. I get regular visits to Thistle Games from The Cartographers Guild for the pdf 'fantasy icons' inside RPG Treasure's zip and installer versions. These can be adapted quickly to give styled icons, e.g. on the Renegade pages at Thistle Games. However, I stopped short of terrain and dungeon features, because they're tricky to weight and brush - and I've too much on to find time.

When someone puts together a set of high quality basic symbols as vectors, making maps will be cheap, easy and fast. Otherwise, it's a lot of work - after you've mastered the software. The 'value' or purpose of specialised software like CC is not, therefore, in the drawing or CAD features, but in providing ready made symbol sets.


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## Dexamalion (Oct 25, 2011)

nedjer said:


> When someone puts together a set of high quality basic symbols as vectors, making maps will be cheap, easy and fast. Otherwise, it's a lot of work - after you've mastered the software.




I know you guys are looking for PC based solutions, but if you are after cheap, easy and fast I'd like to throw my app, Dungeon Mapp into the ring. I designed it to be as quick as possible (as in "map a room in the time it takes the DM to describe it" quick).

Derek


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