Ctrl + 1 Zoom Default Scale

Questions and comments about Other World Mapper.

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Uldar
Posts: 35
Joined: Fri Sep 04, 2020 4:46 am

Ctrl + 1 Zoom Default Scale

Post by Uldar » Sun Oct 03, 2021 11:59 pm

I have a city map whose setup is configured like:

Width: 24"
Height: 18"
Resolution: 300dpi

My screen resolution: 1600x900

When I ctrl+1 to zoom to default, my scale goes to 1-map-inch displaying as 2.5" on my screen. I've been creating buildings on this scale, so to get full normal resolution, I would need to print on a 45"x60" poster. I kind of noticed this when I did my 18"x27" region map and had it printed, but it still looked good even with everything zoomed out and smaller than on screen.

I'm thousands of buildings in at this point, and I love my results, so the only problem is coming up with a suitable print size. I can probably rotate 90 and trim off enough of the current width to create the desired ratio that prints at 100% scale. If a vertical map doesn't work, I'll end up skipping a city poster. What I'd like to understand for future maps is how you guys expected scale, resolution, zoom, and monitor resolution to interact together. Was there an intended formula?

Thanks

nDervish
Posts: 93
Joined: Sat Nov 15, 2014 12:18 am

Re: Ctrl + 1 Zoom Default Scale

Post by nDervish » Mon Oct 04, 2021 4:15 am

Ctrl-1 isn't "zoom to actual print size". Doing that would be tricky and error-prone, because, to the computer, real-world units don't exist, only pixels. Get a different-size monitor or change your desktop resolution, and the same real-world size is a different number of pixels, so the computer needs to change its scale to keep it the same real-world size. While this can be done by using the operating system's setting for monitor dpi, that setting is often incorrect, making it unreliable.

What ctrl-1 actually does is display at a zoom level of 1 screen pixel = 1 image pixel. If your map is at 300dpi, then one inch on the map is 300 pixels, so that one-inch building is drawn as a 300 pixel square. If you're measuring that square as being 2.5 inches, then that implies that your monitor is running at 120dpi, so the same number of pixels will be 2.5 times larger on your screen than on your printer. (300dpi / 120dpi = 2.5)

Unlike screens, printers are very accurate in reporting (and allowing the computer to control) things like paper size and dpi. So you can rest assured that, if you tell it to print your map as 24x18 at 300dpi, then it will be a 24x18 printout, as long as you use a printer that's capable of printing at 300dpi (which pretty much every printer can).

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Kanchou
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Re: Ctrl + 1 Zoom Default Scale

Post by Kanchou » Wed Oct 06, 2021 3:45 pm

nDervish covered this better that I could have, thank you! :)

I do want to understand better what the issue with your printing is. If you setup your map for:
Width: 24"
Height: 18"
Resolution: 300dpi

If you print at 300dpi, then it will be a 24x18 print. This print size would only change if you are printing at a different resolution.

- Alejandro
Alejandro S. Canosa
Three Minds Software

Uldar
Posts: 35
Joined: Fri Sep 04, 2020 4:46 am

Re: Ctrl + 1 Zoom Default Scale

Post by Uldar » Wed Oct 06, 2021 6:38 pm

First, I want to emphasize that I have the results I want. The map looks stellar at the intended zoom scale which I control in the final digital formats.

A couple of gaps lead to my current situation. From a user perspective, I mistakenly associated ctrl+1 with a default zoom scale that was in line with my 24x18" map setup. From a product perspective, there aren't guidelines in the product help that discuss the relationship and help a new user understand how to interact with scale, zoom, and dpi. I could have figured it out if I had the ruler turned on, but I did all my calculations at the setup phase (including a scale of 2px to 1') and never looked back.

Since my default design scale was actually 2.5x what I assumed, it means the detail on a 24x18" print out looks 40% smaller than intended. The view is too zoomed out. The poster doesn't look good at full scale. I turned it vertical and shaved off as much as I could to get a better poster ratio. I'm going to print a sample to see if it's usable. That's the downside.

On the plus side, I made a map that's actually 2.5 times larger than I anticipated. It's massive, with thousands of composite buildings alone. It's an awesome jpg. Even if the poster doesn't work out, I'm ecstatic to publish the digital map.

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Kanchou
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Re: Ctrl + 1 Zoom Default Scale

Post by Kanchou » Thu Oct 07, 2021 11:13 am

Uldar wrote:
Wed Oct 06, 2021 6:38 pm
First, I want to emphasize that I have the results I want. The map looks stellar at the intended zoom scale which I control in the final digital formats.

A couple of gaps lead to my current situation. From a user perspective, I mistakenly associated ctrl+1 with a default zoom scale that was in line with my 24x18" map setup. From a product perspective, there aren't guidelines in the product help that discuss the relationship and help a new user understand how to interact with scale, zoom, and dpi. I could have figured it out if I had the ruler turned on, but I did all my calculations at the setup phase (including a scale of 2px to 1') and never looked back.

Since my default design scale was actually 2.5x what I assumed, it means the detail on a 24x18" print out looks 40% smaller than intended. The view is too zoomed out. The poster doesn't look good at full scale. I turned it vertical and shaved off as much as I could to get a better poster ratio. I'm going to print a sample to see if it's usable. That's the downside.

On the plus side, I made a map that's actually 2.5 times larger than I anticipated. It's massive, with thousands of composite buildings alone. It's an awesome jpg. Even if the poster doesn't work out, I'm ecstatic to publish the digital map.
That makes sense, thank you!. Something I have wanted to do is having a "wizard" option when creating a new map where it guides you through settings based on the type of map, but we should at least do a tutorial on creating a new map.

It's been on our to do list for a while so it's something we need to get around to soon.

Thank you!

- Alejandro
Alejandro S. Canosa
Three Minds Software

Uldar
Posts: 35
Joined: Fri Sep 04, 2020 4:46 am

Re: Ctrl + 1 Zoom Default Scale

Post by Uldar » Thu Oct 07, 2021 3:20 pm

Something around scale would be beneficial to new users. That was personally my biggest challenge in my first designs. How big do I make something on my map? It took some playing around for me to get a sense for scale, and ctrl+1 was a helpful shortcut to keep my sense of scale balanced.

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