I am going to get brave and attempt my first game box. I have a question about scaling. In the game I am going to game box the original hexes are small and the counters are a tight fit in the hexes. I would like to scale the map up - say 25 percent or so - so that there is more room for the counters and counter stacks. It here an easy way to do this?
I have limited graphics software - basically Paint-dot-net.
Thanks
Mark
Map and counter scaling
Moderators: Ichibrothers, Cambronne
Hi Mark!
To change the scale of the counters relative to the board, just lie to ZunTzu: tell it that boards and counters are scanned at 150 dpi, but scan the boards at 150 x 125% = 187.5 dpi.
Actually, I always scan at 600 dpi, because it's the optimal resolution of my scanner, and then I downscale the images in a bitmap graphics editor to 25% to get 150 dpi. Just do the same, but downscale the boards to 25 * 125% = 31.25 %.
A piece of advice: using Paint.NET, apply a slight blur before downscaling the 600 dpi image, just enough to hide the halftone screen used by the printing press. The image will look better and will be better prepared for JPEG compression. If the image is still a bit blurry after dowscaling, apply a sharpen effect as a last stage.
To change the scale of the counters relative to the board, just lie to ZunTzu: tell it that boards and counters are scanned at 150 dpi, but scan the boards at 150 x 125% = 187.5 dpi.
Actually, I always scan at 600 dpi, because it's the optimal resolution of my scanner, and then I downscale the images in a bitmap graphics editor to 25% to get 150 dpi. Just do the same, but downscale the boards to 25 * 125% = 31.25 %.
A piece of advice: using Paint.NET, apply a slight blur before downscaling the 600 dpi image, just enough to hide the halftone screen used by the printing press. The image will look better and will be better prepared for JPEG compression. If the image is still a bit blurry after dowscaling, apply a sharpen effect as a last stage.
Jerome, ZunTzu developer.
Thanks!
Jerome:
I thought that I would have to do the scaling outside of ZunTzu. What you said makes sense and is all just ratios in the graphics software. I have made all of my raw scans at 300 dpi. I tried 600 but when experimenting with standard size 22x34 maps my computer was real sluggish combined map file. The game I am working on has just an 11x17 map so I will try the 600 dpi scans. I am a real rookie at this graphics stuff. I appreciate the comments. This site and board has been very helpful.
I have used all of the other game aids - ADC2, Vassal and Cyberboard - I like ZunTzu best. It is clean and simple.
Thanks for the quick response. Now for some more experimenting.
Mark
I thought that I would have to do the scaling outside of ZunTzu. What you said makes sense and is all just ratios in the graphics software. I have made all of my raw scans at 300 dpi. I tried 600 but when experimenting with standard size 22x34 maps my computer was real sluggish combined map file. The game I am working on has just an 11x17 map so I will try the 600 dpi scans. I am a real rookie at this graphics stuff. I appreciate the comments. This site and board has been very helpful.
I have used all of the other game aids - ADC2, Vassal and Cyberboard - I like ZunTzu best. It is clean and simple.
Thanks for the quick response. Now for some more experimenting.
Mark