Printer friendly improvments?

[The Iron Player]

Hello, I'm just providing some feedback on printing maps. I greatly enjoy using this map maker for my digital games and the things that it can do are fantastic. That being said lets continue.

I currently use a business toner printer that prints up to 1200 DPI and it only prints in B&W. My printer makes very sharp prints. Here are my observations on printing maps with Canvas of Kings and how to possibly fix the issues I encountered.

The included printer friendly template makes everything that is lighter in color disappear when printing, like roads and dirt paths. The blacks become gray and the grays become white. There's also a pattern on the canvas that makes my prints look soft or lower in definition and uses more toner than it should. I've tuned it a bit to make that not happen slightly, however, that makes the background grey which covers the page in toner, wasting my toner.

So I've struck a balance with losing toner and losing definition but it definitely stops me from making maps that I need to print in the future. My solution to this is to perhaps allow the user to change the canvas to color and pattern instead of relying on color adjustment.

[Hannes Breuer]

Originally posted by The Iron Player:

Hello, I'm just providing some feedback on printing maps. I greatly enjoy using this map maker for my digital games and the things that it can do are fantastic. That being said lets continue.

I currently use a business toner printer that prints up to 1200 DPI and it only prints in B&W. My printer makes very sharp prints. Here are my observations on printing maps with Canvas of Kings and how to possibly fix the issues I encountered.

The included printer friendly template makes everything that is lighter in color disappear when printing, like roads and dirt paths. The blacks become gray and the grays become white. There's also a pattern on the canvas that makes my prints look soft or lower in definition and uses more toner than it should. I've tuned it a bit to make that not happen slightly, however, that makes the background grey which covers the page in toner, wasting my toner.

So I've struck a balance with losing toner and losing definition but it definitely stops me from making maps that I need to print in the future. My solution to this is to perhaps allow the user to change the canvas to color and pattern instead of relying on color adjustment.

Hi!

Thank you for your feedback! Sorry for my late reply!

1200 DPI is impressive. I'm glad to hear about your experience. You are the first one I know of with these capabilities.

That doesn't sound so good. Is it the same when printing, for example, a Word file or an image with 100% black content? Does the printer save ink by turning black into gray/transparent black?
Is the pattern perhaps the grass you see?

Sounds like the contrasts should be stronger. Also, the black lines of the textures should be even blacker (I draw my textures with pen and paper, so it's more gray than black). In the environment tab there is a slider called black value. You can use it to make the lines blacker. But it may not be enough.

Best regards
Hannes

[The Iron Player]

Hi!

Thank you for your feedback! Sorry for my late reply!

1200 DPI is impressive. I'm glad to hear about your experience. You are the first one I know of with these capabilities.

That doesn't sound so good. Is it the same when printing, for example, a Word file or an image with 100% black content? Does the printer save ink by turning black into gray/transparent black?
Is the pattern perhaps the grass you see?

Sounds like the contrasts should be stronger. Also, the black lines of the textures should be even blacker (I draw my textures with pen and paper, so it's more gray than black). In the environment tab there is a slider called black value. You can use it to make the lines blacker. But it may not be enough.

Best regards
Hannes

Hey I just made the adjustments you talked about and it made a much greater improvement from what I was printing before. I had the black value turned up but I neglected to turn up the contrast which made the difference. I also double checked my printer settings and made sure I wasn't using a toner saver setting and I was not. So my map is much more legible now and the color adjustment isn't getting in the way of printing anymore :D

However I noticed that my prints look grainy and upon closer inspection the ground textures that fill the canvas normally, end up turning into small dots when I print it out. It would be very helpful to be able to toggle it so I can get clearer prints. Otherwise I'm very satisfied with how my prints are turning out now!

[Hannes Breuer]

Originally posted by The Iron Player:

Hi!

Thank you for your feedback! Sorry for my late reply!

1200 DPI is impressive. I'm glad to hear about your experience. You are the first one I know of with these capabilities.

That doesn't sound so good. Is it the same when printing, for example, a Word file or an image with 100% black content? Does the printer save ink by turning black into gray/transparent black?
Is the pattern perhaps the grass you see?

Sounds like the contrasts should be stronger. Also, the black lines of the textures should be even blacker (I draw my textures with pen and paper, so it's more gray than black). In the environment tab there is a slider called black value. You can use it to make the lines blacker. But it may not be enough.

Best regards
Hannes

Hey I just made the adjustments you talked about and it made a much greater improvement from what I was printing before. I had the black value turned up but I neglected to turn up the contrast which made the difference. I also double checked my printer settings and made sure I wasn't using a toner saver setting and I was not. So my map is much more legible now and the color adjustment isn't getting in the way of printing anymore :D

However I noticed that my prints look grainy and upon closer inspection the ground textures that fill the canvas normally, end up turning into small dots when I print it out. It would be very helpful to be able to toggle it so I can get clearer prints. Otherwise I'm very satisfied with how my prints are turning out now!

Hi!

I'm glad to hear that things have improved. :)

Regarding the ground texture: do the little dots have a regular pattern? The ground texture has randomly placed a few dots for grass. I'm not sure if the grass is printed or if the printer interprets the white ground texture in the image differently.
My printer does not print color solid, but in a regular dot pattern to save ink. You can only see this if you look very closely.