Make Amazing Maps with Microsoft Paint

Do you want to learn to make your own custom maps on a budget? Is FREE cheap enough for you? In this step-by-step tutorial you'll learn how to use MS Paint, a free software, to design your maps. At Little Wars TV we use these maps for wargames, but the same technique seen here can work for any map you have in mind ranging from historical to fantasy.
DISCLAIMER: Microsoft Paint was not designed for map making...frankly, it wasn't designed to do any project at this level of complexity. Buying Adobe Photoshop or learning to use GIMP will save you many hours of tedious work. Proceed with MS Paint only if you are too cheap and too lazy to use a better software. Like me.
Visit us at www.LittleWarsTV.com for the best historical wargaming videos on the web!

[@campaignseries4867]

I was the cartographer for Armchair General magazine! I'm glad you liked the style of the maps! I made them using various versions of CorelDraw.

[@LittleWarsTV]

Then it's an honor to hear from you on here! Your brilliant maps inspired these designs!

[@campaignseries4867]

@@LittleWarsTV Thank you so much! I'm happy to hear they provided the inspiration for you! Excellent work on your part!

[@WARdROBEPlaysWWII]

That’s crazy

[@rikkilleen3169]

We stand in the presence of greatness! 😳 [removes hat] Thank you for so many fond memories.

[@campaignseries4867]

@@rikkilleen3169 You're most welcome!

[@6milphil975]

There's a hint of madness to this, and for that I salute you.

[@DominusRexDK]

it nice to see others who have gotten used to, and strangely fond of the pain that is making maps in MSpaint.

[@LittleWarsTV]

I would definitely consider myself "strangely fond" of MS Paint, despite the tedious nature of it at times.

[@alexxavier5408]

Well, and now I know how to make maps :) Thanks!

[@richbrown29]

Thanks so much for including the numerical codes for the colors you used. It is a huge help to colorblind folks such as myself.

[@TheAcceptableCasualties]

Great tutorial, guys. Anything to add a little extra immersion to the games we play is worth doing in my book. Keep putting out these videos, they are top notch.

[@m3lv1n19]

Never really thought of Paint as a viable tool for drawing wargame maps. Thanks for the demo

[@Robzdefheadz]

I used a mix of this tutorial and a little bit of the GIMP editing to program to make an amazing map for one of my games. Thank you for the inspiration!

[@alans6752]

Thanks for adding this video. It's the little things (with lots of hard work and time) the bring history to life that make this hobby enjoyable.

[@MarcRacineVT]

Really enjoyed this - thank you! Would love to see more map making to tutorials.

[@juliantheedoctor]

Great resource. I wanted a low tech way of drawing a map for a transect walk I'm doing as part of my community diagnosis. Love this. Thanks.

[@dalewood3676]

I’m blown away! You make it so incredibly easy.

[@get_the_lead_out]

Very impressive map. I still come back to Paint to do projects myself - it is pretty intuitive. Thanks for another great video!!!

[@LeoAugustom]

I would really like to see how you make the style of map at 0:28, especially getting the layers and mountains to work.

[@anthonyguter]

That is so impressive. I have struggled with making maps on PC - you have given me fresh inspiration to have another go.

[@LittleWarsTV]

Good luck, Anthony! Paint isn't the fastest tool for the job, but it's darn easy to use.

[@tubatk421]

Last year I was creating a Gettysburg map for a board game on MS Paint and my brother belittled me for using it. Lol

[@edbowen8287]

Great video and very informative. I'd definitely like additional map making tutorials. Thanks for posting.

[@mattrey97]

Awesome! thank you for showing your techniques

[@thelonelybolter8245]

So cool! Really effective, never would have thought you can do that with MS paint. Amazing :D

[@ice9172]

Awesome video. Keep going on the map videos I'm looking to start some for various project and this might be my answer.

[@andreaspersson5639]

The ideal tool to use, is the tool you're the most comfortable using ;) (and an interresting spoiler for what's to come, looking forward to it)

[@jamesnewsom9895]

Magnificent tutorial. Thank you.

[@gilmer3718]

Excellent!! Thank you very much for doing this.

[@jacoblayer3358]

I am partial to powerpoint, but I choose it from familiarity rather than capability so I understand the use of paint to some extent. Either way, fantastic job and I will absolutely steal many of the ideas (and colors) from this video. Thank you!

[@darrellpidgeon6440]

Nothing wrong with MS paint. When I write a story, I like to go to MS paint to create a reference map for myself. So easy to use. The natural pencil is one of the better tools. I make forests the same way you show here. I made a folder to hold several bit-maps of homemade icons for various things. I like to extend the canvas a small amount to paste in the bit-map I need, then use the selection tool to copy and paste the items. The ctrl key comes in handy for repeat pastings of the selection. When the map is done, it gets cropped and saved. Great tutorial, guy!

[@redmist1122]

Very good tutorial! I too use paint along with Power Point for map and QRS and what not for gaming. I actually picked up a couple of tips in paint...thank you!

[@RPGTabs]

Thank you for the tutorial. Although I have Photoshop and other software available, I often use Paint because it is so easy and I am so familiar with it. However, after all these years of using it, I'm happy to say I still picked up some really useful tips from the video. For example, why didn't I think of that as a way to do woods???!!!!

[@gcbisset]

Could you make a follow-up vid on how to use Gimp for this? It seems that would be easier for most people who dont have all your paint experience.

[@KWGamers]

That was awesome! I've been using MSP for maps in the last few years but have been cheating. I dau cheating because they have not been historical maps at all. This tutorial highlighted some excellent tips. Thanks.

[@StackingLimit]

Thanks for a great tutorial!

[@firstfighter7037]

Very nice work!!! Best regards from Cologne / Germany

[@NSYresearch]

That was excellent, thank you.

[@SlotraceDK]

Very helpful, thanks!

[@captainnolan5062]

Great tutorial!

[@apropercuppa8612]

This is what I need. I’ve been trying to figure out how to make one for a N. African FoW campaign.

[@hexesandsoldiers6032]

You sir are the Bob Ross of map making!

[@LittleWarsTV]

High praise indeed. I've always preferred "Wizard of Paint" but "The Bob Ross of Mapmaking" sounds pretty swell.

[@hangarflying]

Excellent! Now we need a video on how to move the tokens and flags around the map!

[@LittleWarsTV]

We handle all the video animation to do moving map tokens in Adobe Premiere Elements. It's a mid-range video editing software that runs about $60-$90 depending on where you buy it and which version you get. Highly recommended, though!

[@hangarflying]

Yes, but we still need a video! 😁

[@duaneleavesley3778]

Very cool and interesting

[@daviddeveau5962]

Niiiiice! That is pushing Microsoft Paint, lol. Just like before Photoshop gained 'layers' after I think it was v2.3. In another video someone did the animation on the maps in Adobe Premier. Is there a video on that too!?! You guys are great! David - from Vanguard Hobby Club

[@charlieparsons3047]

Very nice!! Could you please do a demonstration of GIMP? Thanks.

[@Nangwaya]

Very impressive.

[@packersfanforlife7903]

I'm currently making a map in Wondercraft, I find this program brilliant. I had to pay for it but I'm currently making an entire North American 1775 map for a campaign map of the AWI. I will save it into Table Top Simulator as a board and have all the assets to move around on the board. Then when two Generals meet hex to hex, I'll then fight it out on the table top with my 6mm armies... once they are completed. Each campaign turn is a month and 12 turns to each year from 1775 to 1783, however 1781 to 1783 will basically be overtime if neither side has the upper hand.

[@LittleWarsTV]

Wonderdraft is a GREAT piece of software. Love it.

Thumps up for the disclaimer alone :)

[@majortomgamer5059]

Has the color things changed because I tried to use the same thing but it didn't look the same color

[@liebe1099]

Holy sh*t I needed this I have a project due monday.

[@tonydankers1842]

Hi Gary, I'm not sure if you get alerted to comments on older videos but I was wondering how you got the battlefield map for the "Amazing First Manassas Wargame" blind movement. Was that also a map created by the club for the game or a blowup an existing map? Loved the video and just purchased "Alter of Freedom".

[@LittleWarsTV]

The map we used for the blind movement is a historical, period map found online. It's from the Library of Congress and available in high resolution. The historical map has units on it, so I modified the map (in Paint, of course) to remove the units!

[@inkslyy]

Thanks for helping me with my school work

[@inkslyy]

Yo

[@LittleWarsTV]

Happy to help!

[@marcelosilveira2276]

1:25 well, as for me, I will be using paint because this is literally the only video I've ever found on how to make this kind of map

[@LittleWarsTV]

It takes time, but it does work and produce some nice results if you're patient!

[@hobbyinggary7499]

Really useful video! Thanks fellas!

[@keithcarter5468]

None of the custom colour "recipes" seem to work on my version of paint. Has their been an update or change that anyone is aware of?

[@oneMeVz]

I miss having Photoshop CS. I learned everything on Photoshop at school and college. But then I got my first computer on my own at the same time Adobe released CC. And that monthly fee was a wall to ever use the software.

[@nicklemming2556]

I used illustrator when doing my cartography classes at school, but as with you, the monthly fee put a stop to that.

[@LittleWarsTV]

I despise the "monthly fee" model. Most of Adobe's high end software has gone over to that business model, which is why we use their "Elements" video editing software. Pay once, own it forever.

[@oneMeVz]

General miniatures question: Are transparent bases advisable? It's not like basing with scenery is difficult, I just don't want to bother. And the thought of a squad surrounded by bushes inside a house, or in a bank of snow on the Sahara will break immersion.

[@Myke...]

Creative suite was great, hated Mac getting rid of PPC which I could not transfer my version to intel Imac. Then Adobe got greedy and killed those who use it as a hobby. I been eying up Affinity they just issued publisher, with Designer (illustrator) and photo they look like the best and closest to Adobe (still a long way to outclass adobe) with similar shortcuts settings.

[@GuyInnagorillasuit]

You'll have to relearn a few things because the interface is different, but Gimp is very capable and doesn't cost a thing.

[@TheDiomedef16]

That was brilliant, even a Luddite like me can give that a try.

[@LittleWarsTV]

As you can tell, this is a pretty low tech solution. Probably about the lowest-tech digital mapping software you could possibly find!

[@TheDiomedef16]

@@LittleWarsTV Low tech describes me perfectly. I shall certainly give it a go.

[@shadowblaster124]

You're a man after my own heart. I am also terribly lazy and use MS Paint for things when it'd be easier to use Paint.NET or GIMP.

[@maltezimmermann8604]

You are a genius xD

[@WARdROBEPlaysWWII]

Very cool

[@TheTazman49684]

I too, use the paint program for maps, its easy after you use it more and more, but can be tedious as you say. However I save it and go back again and again to work on it and listen to music so not so bad.... Respectfully, Gunny

[@hakanyetkin5424]

Nice video. Also I prefer paintmaps.com for making custom maps with your own data.

[@chrismoraal1769]

You aren't kidding about stretching it to its limits! Have you used GIMP previously? That is also a free tool like Microsoft Paint and it has layers like Photoshop so instead of having to have multiple windows open you could just draw within new layers.

[@Datruth330]

Armchair general was the best magazine!!!

[@revatte549]

personally, I like using firealpaca for maps, it's east to use and is free

[@captainnolan5062]

What was the purpose of saving all of the "layers" separately?

[@LittleWarsTV]

In case you ever need to go back and make changes, it's helpful to save at least 2-4 layers throughout.

[@williamstewart4620]

Thanks for the excellent tutorial - you make it look fun! A small, very small note, cartographic convention is to use italic for identifying water features. Another infinitesimally small note, linear features often have the letters spaced along the feature: S o m m e R i v e r

[@antohammerilwargamersolita3269]

U should use paint.net it s free and it would work good for your way of map making :)

[@HansVGinkel]

The right url is: www.getpaint.net Working with layers and its very intuitive user interface are great advantages of this program over paint and gimp.

[@Splozy]

@@HansVGinkel GIMP has layers too. Also has a good UI if you take 5 mins to set it up right. They've never really bothered to ship it with nice settings despite it supporting it.

[@HansVGinkel]

@@Splozy Sure I know. But Paint has no layers. And Gimp is far from intuitive. It simply hasn't the look and feel like Paint has. www.getpaint.net has both layers and a very intuitive user interface 👍

[@ausaskar]

I'd second paint.net it's the perfect compromise between the simplicity of paint and (sometimes onerous) features of Photoshop and GIMP.

[@thomaswilson3437]

Having used GIMP for skinning virtual models I'd tell you it's the absolute best freeware for this kind of work...That being said....if you download it today, don't expect to be doing anything creative for a while. Long lead time for getting familiar enough with it to actually produce anything. I've dabbled with getpaint , and find it far more simplistic and easier for what most of what I was doing. I do like Jason's point in that he uses Paint because he started out using it and is very familiar with it. Can't ignore that factor.

[@craigwelter5862]

You could try Paint.Net. It is free to download, and has a pretty similar interface to paint but also has support for layers. It also has other stuff you probably don't need, but it's not as hard to learn or find what you're looking for as some other programs, so the learning curve is pretty shallow.

[@Kyllingmannen]

I have been making maps with Paint.net myself for tabletop purposes, and it's like MS Paint but with layers. It's a great improvement over just using MS Paint, and is highly recommendable.

[@hamm6035]

Very cool by why not use the Google map satellite image without the infrastructure.?

[@LittleWarsTV]

Because it can be fun to make maps! Certainly for pure time and effort there are MUCH easier ways.

[@benjialvarez5560]

You should do a battle of Stalingrad

[@aricliljegren890]

Cool idea to do a video on this topic and you do a nice job describing your process. That said, Yikes! Photoshop is an infinitely better tool for this. Toss your original(s) onto a separate layer, turn down opacity and you'll nail it every time - no need for ruler guides/eye-balling.

[@LittleWarsTV]

Absolutely, Photoshop is the way to go if you have the program. But for those who don't, old school Paint can be tediously made to work in a pinch!

[@dv28l74]

How do you find the scale?

[@LittleWarsTV]

You need to pick a reference map to start--you can easily search for one online--and then use that map as your scale reference.

[@dv28l74]

@@LittleWarsTV Thank you so much!

[@miguelvalladares1986]

Well nice work,but tecnicaly they are no Maps, they are Croquis. Your tips help a lot, i use paint to wen i went to the U to study cartography, help my a lot... arcmap, cosmo, mapinfo < paint.

[@kevinsworldK.w69]

What you can more accutarly do is put the map you used then select the box shape, make color 1 and 2 be white and have fill on with the marker mode, after that cover the whole screen with the white. Its transparent cuz the mark mode and white is easy to see throw, after that trace it as usual when ur done do the same white box marker thingy 2 times then select the eraser, make color 2 be the black and color one use the eye drop tool and select the color of ur trace, hold right click with the eraser and hold it on the border. This is very complicated when you put it on text so here's a video showing how simple it actually is: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eIK8pGeqhMilbpY Also DONT USE THE BRUSH its garbage, it ruins the map. How? Well see if you use the bucket tool then the paint tool is going to ruin it, it wont fill and there will be slightly different colored pixels that make the fill tool useless. Use the pencil tool as it always uses the same color

[@manuelkong10]

HELP I don't have a "undo" thingy on my PAINT

[@LittleWarsTV]

Yikes! Never heard of that problem before. The "undo" button is pretty essential!

[@drohanp]

Try Inkscape...freeware too

[@lukevillarreal1458]

Does this mean you guys are going to do a WWI wargame!

[@LittleWarsTV]

It does, and we did! This map appears in the Red Baron episode, as he was shot down in the Somme Valley. Watch the episode to see if he gets shot down again in our game!

[@lukevillarreal1458]

@@LittleWarsTV Awesome, thanks!!!

[@TTArt]

MS Paint is the best painting program

[@StormofSteelWargaming]

Amazing work on a terrible program! LOL. Just kidding, this really is outstanding work!

[@blee12lin]

I also pushed the limits of Microsoft Paint.

[@dv28l74]

You can use paint.net Much more options in my opinion

[@jackdeth5009]

Hate to necro-post on a useful video but the numbers will drive you mad. If you are wondering why the colors look wrong, note that in the video he is showing HSL values. Paint has changed to HSV - doesn't work the same!

[@DeePsix501]

Whew you are a glutton for punishment. Anyone at the club play Bolt Action? Or is it too simple for taste? I’m trying to get into miniature wargaming

[@LittleWarsTV]

Yes, several guys at the club enjoy Bolt Action. If you're just getting into wargaming I would strongly recommend it as a great introductory game. Especially for those who may be coming from a Warhammer/Games Workshop background, as there are some strong similarities in the way the rules work. For guys in our club who have been playing games for many years, Bolt Action is definitely considered on the "lite" end of the rules spectrum and more advanced games are preferred.

[@DeePsix501]

Little Wars TV thanks guys! I’m a big WW2 gamer (love playing Commands & Colors), and you all are inspiring me to jump into more miniature stuff. Bolt Action and Chain of Command caught my attention first. Cheers!

[@bobar84c]

corel draw would be bingo

[@loafdupain]

i wish microsoft paint was on chrome...

[@josephg3231]

lay a hexgrid down on those babies

[@kaiserrat70]

:/ on mobile

[@BobSmith-dk8nw]

Ah! Imagine my disappointment when I realized that some degree of artistic talent was required .... Leaves me out ... .

[@manuelkong10]

how about a disclaimer that you're going to waste our time with a disclaimer lol