Hexographer (free hex mapping program) Gets More Updates

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The Hexographer software (a free web-based hex mapping program) has received a couple of updates:

  • The user can change the color of the cosmic icons (planets, asteroids, etc.) as they are placed. (So for example not all the planets have to be white. They can vary in color to differentiate them.) This change was also applied to the settlement icons (capital, town, fort, castle, etc.) and other symbol icons (battle, whaling, mines, etc.)
  • If the user is tracing an imported map, he can now turn off the background map he is tracing. Related to that change, all the options that show/hide something (like grid lines, hex numbers, political features, etc.) were moved out of the “Options” menu and to a new “Show/Hide” menu. The options menu only has two menu items now, but one of the next new features will add at least a third.

For those who haven’t seen it before:
Over the past 2 months the Hexographer software was created and has been updated every few days.  It allows a user to create hex maps like those in Known World/Mystara/“The Voyage of the Princess Ark” Dragon magazine article series.

The software is web-based at: Hexographer

Below is a sample map and list of features:

  • The software starts as an applet in a web page so many people won’t have to install anything. (You may need to install/upgrade Java, however.)
  • You can choose to start with a map of random terrain or a map of all one terrain.
  • You set the map’s width and height in hexes and the size of the hexes.
  • You can customize the random terrain generator to give a different mix of land.
  • Then your map opens in a pop-up window.
  • There you can select terrain buttons then click on the map to change a hex into that terrain. You can also drag over hexes to change all of those hexes.
  • You can select generic line and text buttons to draw lines or add labels and there are also preset line a text buttons that have settings appropriate for coastlines, rivers, roads, country borders, etc.
  • You can optionally turn on/off hex borders, hex numbering, terrain icons.
  • Hex numbering is very customizable: font name/style/size/color; rows then columns vs. columns then rows; set the separator character; what number to use to start the rows and columns.
  • If you add text and lines and note if each is a political feature, natural feature or infrastructure, you can turn each of these on and off as if they are layers. (The preset road/river/boundary line and text buttons are set up for this.)
  • You can save it to a native format for later editing and export it as a regular PNG image so it can be edited in an image editor or printed.
  • It also includes some planet/star/asteroid/etc icons to create a starmap.
  • You can also import a map to trace over it if you want to use an old map or part of a map as a guide.
  • And of course a whole bunch more!