High quality high res map

@ambilzi:

I might print it out. As I own the game I don’t really have the need to currently, but I was really impressed by what you did with the magnetic board and I was entertaining the idea of doing something similar as game space is hard to come by in my home, especially for a game that can take more than one days worth of playing to complete and leaving it in place is somewhat demanding, especially with cats.

What you said is exactly the reason why I did a magnetized board except change “cats” for “kids”.  I have mine hanging on a wall in my house and it works great.  Kids leave it alone and I can look at it any time.

I scanned it into my tiny little 8.5x17 scanner, 8 scans per game board panel and just assembled them together where they overlapped in photoshop. I didn’t have to cut up my board to do it, but it took a lot of work to stitch everything together in photoshop and blend out the creases, etc. I used the clone stamp quite a bit. There were a few gaps as a result, but I was just able to reproduce the map imagery with the clone stamp.

That is good that you didn’t have to cut up your board.  The glass on my scanner is slightly recessed due to the way the plastic shell is molded around it and I just couldn’t get my board to lay flat on the glass.  I had no choice but to cut it up so it would lay flat on the scanner glass.  About the clone stamp….yeah, I thought I was going to break it considering how much I used it!  :-D

I see your file size was only ~16mb.  The file you are working on at home must be much larger than that.  I scanned mine in at 300dpi and overall my map was ~575mb I think.

If you are interested in the other improvements I did, let me know.  I could PM you a list if you would like.

@ambilzi:

I was also able to explicitly identify the font used. It’s “Barbedor” as far as I can tell.

Oh how I wish I had known this when I was doing my map.  I literally spent hours trying to figure out the font and I never did.  I ended up having to copy and paste sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo many individual letters in order to correct the wording in the creases.  Well, I’m glad that you did find the correct font as I’m sure it saved you a lot of time compared to what I had to do.

This is just a general statement, but if anyone plans on having this file printed off, I would suggest having it enlarged.  I enlarged my map to 82" x 37" and the increase in size does wonders for making the board less congested.

@gsh34:

Ambilzi,

I’m the “other guy” you talk about and I think you are doing a great job with your map.  The big “problem” that I ran into is that since the map is copyrighted, I thought I would give Wizards of the Coast the courtesy of asking to distribute my updated map.  My thought was that they would appreciate the loyalty and effort that a consumer of their product went through to do this and allow me to distribute it for free.  I was wrong.  After about six weeks or so I received a terse two sentence reply back of “NO!”.  So, I just want to warn you that Wizards probably won’t take kindly to you distributing the map should they ever find out.  Take that for what ever you want.

Anyways, I have a few questions for you.  How did you acquire the base map image?  For me, I tried taking pictures of it and then using Photoshop to stitch them back together.  That didn’t work due to the lens distortion that happens with cameras.  I ended up having to cut my map panels up to fit them on my scanner and then reassemble them with Photoshop.  Also, are you interested in any of the other improvements to the map I did?  If so, I could let you other areas of the map I changed/improved.  Are you planning on printing it off?  If so, make sure you convert your Photoshop file to CMYK color format and not RGB.  That will actually make a huge difference in how the colors look should you actually print off your map.

Kudos to you then, I am the type of person who when told not to do something either by a faceless company or country I tend to chart my own path.  As an adult, I feel I am capable of deciding what is morally right for myself and if I had an overseer I’d be more likely to go against them just to get under their craw.  Screw da man, just don’t tell him! :)

@ambilzi:

@gsh34:

@ambilzi:

I was also able to explicitly identify the font used. It’s “Barbedor” as far as I can tell.

Oh how I wish I had known this when I was doing my map.  I literally spent hours trying to figure out the font and I never did.  I ended up having to copy and paste sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo many individual letters in order to correct the wording in the creases.  Well, I’m glad that you did find the correct font as I’m sure it saved you a lot of time compared to what I had to do.

I used this:

new.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/

You are kidding, right?  I tried using that website several times to try to identify the font and it never did it correctly. :x  Maybe I was using the wrong pic of a letter or something.  Oh well.  Like I said, I’m glad you didn’t have to go through the hassle of copy and pasting like I did.

Also, about your file size.  I had mine scanned at 300dpi but printed at 150dpi and it still turned out fantastic.  I dealt with a signage company in San Antonio and the owner really helped guide me to a good medium for printing my map on.  He stated he could print at 300dpi, but that it would cost a lot more to do that and I would not be able to notice the difference between 150dpi and 300dpi anyways.  He even showed me a sample of some prints that he had and I couldn’t tell any difference.  So, I am just letting you know that in advance if you want to have it printed out.

@ambilzi:

Sure, but what if I want to print it out at 150" by 70" some day?

:-P

Well then, if that is the size you want, you can have your map instead of the new car you’ve been wanting. :lol:

Hey IL,

Can you see about placing this file as the map sticky?  It is far better without the creases than the current picture.

Have you posted a link to this map already?  I ask because the one link I clicked on went to A&A50 and not Global.  It would be nice to have a high quality map to use when discussing a possible set of moves, and since there already is a poorer scan in the Stickies, updating it to better quality is in the interests of all.

Morning all.

Thanks for these high-res images, in my opinion they are the best I have come across so far.  Just a question to anyone who has had this printed off on a larger scale – what type of paper/material did you have it printed on, and how did you back it?

Thanks in advance.

I printed mine as a poster, and then I laminated it with mat-lam (low glare). I than stapeled vinyl material to a sheet of plywood and than used a spray adhesive to stick the laminated poster onto the vinyl (to prevent lifting air pockets).

@Young:

I printed mine as a poster, and then I laminated it with mat-lam (low glare). I than stapeled vinyl material to a sheet of plywood and than used a spray adhesive to stick the laminated poster onto the vinyl (to prevent lifting air pockets).

Thanks!  I’ll give this a go…. although having just investigated the price of having a large copy printed off, I may have to save for a while.