A printed battle map is just a big image cut into pieces that fit your paper. The only part that goes wrong is the scale, and that is easy to check before you waste a ream.
Grid scale basics
Most miniatures and battle mats use one inch per square, where one square is five feet in the game. A standard map is easiest to use at that scale, because minis and tokens fit the squares.
That means a map that is 30 squares wide and 20 squares tall prints as 30 inches by 20 inches. It is bigger than a sheet of paper, so you print it in tiles.
Paper size and margins
Most home printers cannot print to the very edge of the page, and many leave about a quarter inch. Check your printer's minimum margin, then work out the printable area.
- US Letter is 8.5 by 11 inches. With quarter-inch margins, the printable area is 8 by 10.5 inches, which fits 8 by 10 whole squares in portrait, or 10 by 8 in landscape.
- A4 is 210 by 297 millimeters, about 8.27 by 11.69 inches. With the same margins, that is about 7.77 by 11.19 inches, or 7 by 11 whole squares in portrait.
Work out how many pages you need
Divide the map's width and height in squares by the squares that fit on a page, and round up. Orientation matters, so try both.
Take that 30 by 20 square map on letter paper:
- In landscape (10 by 8 squares per page): 30 divided by 10 is 3 pages across, and 20 divided by 8 is 2.5, so 3 pages down. That is 9 pages.
- In portrait (8 by 10 squares per page): 30 divided by 8 is 3.75, so 4 pages across, and 20 divided by 10 is 2 pages down. That is 8 pages.
The portrait layout uses one fewer sheet. It is always worth running the numbers both ways before you press print.
Tile it in Acrobat
Adobe Acrobat and Acrobat Reader have a poster option that splits a large page across several sheets. Open the PDF, choose Print, and pick Poster under Page Sizing & Handling. It lets you set:
- Tile Scale, which you should set to 100 percent for one inch per square.
- Overlap, the amount of duplicated image on each tile, so pages are easier to line up.
- Cut marks and labels, which help you trim and keep the tiles in order.
Do not use "Fit" for a battle map. It shrinks the map to one page and the squares will no longer be an inch.
Test one page first
Before printing the whole map, print one tile and measure a square with a ruler. If it is not exactly one inch, check that the scale is 100 percent and that nothing is set to fit or shrink. Doing this once saves a lot of paper.
Assemble the tiles
- Lay the pages out on a flat surface in the right order.
- Trim one edge of each overlap, or keep the overlap and tape over it, whichever you prefer.
- Match the grid lines across each seam so the squares line up.
- Tape the pages together from the back with clear tape, so the front stays clean.
If you plan to use a map more than once, laminate it or slip it under a clear sheet so you can use dry-erase markers on it.
Gridded or gridless?
The Goblin Mines bundle includes both. If you print a gridless version, you can place a clear grid over it or agree that one inch is five feet. For help choosing, see Gridded vs. Gridless Battle Maps. The Goblin Mines Map Bundle is print-ready and VTT-ready.