What resolution do you design at?

[Gamerprinter]

I use a vector drawing program, so drawing units for me is in inches - at the design stage, there is no such thing as pixels, and resolution is meaningless.

Once the entire map is created at whatever dimensions in inches, such as 8.5 x 11, 18 x 24, or 36 x 96 inches, only upon export to a graphic file format does resolution come into play. In whatever format I choose (usually JPG), I export at anything between VT scale 50 pixels per inch up to 300 ppi. If the map was intended for use in a Virtual Tabletop application, I would export at the best resolution for that given application; Roll20 is 70 dpi for example. Because the map is in its designed file format (.XAR) I can freely export multiple resolutions and file formats from the same design. I don't usually need to rescale the map for any reason, but as a vector file, I can do this as well. That is if the design was created at 18 x 24, I could easily rescale this to 36 x 48, prior to export.

300 ppi resolution maps are intended for print, while all smaller resolutions are for either downloadable PDF scale (96 ppi), or other specific VT required ppi resolution.

@Jalyha - dpi definitely affects the file size. Consider that Anna Meyer just sent me her most recent Greyhawk map for printing, its a PDF at 36" x 48", 300 ppi and the file is 460 MB in size. She had sent me an uncompressed JPG and that was over 1.6 GB, but I had problems sending that to the printer.

[Kennyt]

I use a vector drawing program, so drawing units for me is in inches - at the design stage, there is no such thing as pixels, and resolution is meaningless.

Once the entire map is created at whatever dimensions in inches, such as 8.5 x 11, 18 x 24, or 36 x 96 inches, only upon export to a graphic file format does resolution come into play. In whatever format I choose (usually JPG), I export at anything between VT scale 50 pixels per inch up to 300 ppi. If the map was intended for use in a Virtual Tabletop application, I would export at the best resolution for that given application; Roll20 is 70 dpi for example. Because the map is in its designed file format (.XAR) I can freely export multiple resolutions and file formats from the same design. I don't usually need to rescale the map for any reason, but as a vector file, I can do this as well. That is if the design was created at 18 x 24, I could easily rescale this to 36 x 48, prior to export.

300 ppi resolution maps are intended for print, while all smaller resolutions are for either downloadable PDF scale (96 ppi), or other specific VT required ppi resolution.

@Jalyha - dpi definitely affects the file size. Consider that Anna Meyer just sent me her most recent Greyhawk map for printing, its a PDF at 36" x 48", 300 ppi and the file is 460 MB in size. She had sent me an uncompressed JPG and that was over 1.6 GB, but I had problems sending that to the printer.

Hello, just reading through this forum - I use roll20 and been slowly trying to make my maps outside of roll20 instead of the EASY way inside roll 20 (just cause i want to actually "own" my maps) so my first attempt HERE, looks fairly good for my first try but when i import it into roll20 i have to stretch it a bit (i think i made the squares to small at 50x50) do you know what roll20 square size is by any chance? i'd like to remake my map into one that i don't have to distort inside the program. Thanks!

[Kennyt]

Oops nevermind - found it! https://wiki.roll20.net/Image_Best_Practices_for_Roll20
and https://wiki.roll20.net/Mapping_with_Gimp