The 1 inch = 5 feet convention
Tabletop roleplaying games that use miniatures almost all settle on the same scale: one inch on the table equals five feet in the game world. Each square is the space a person-sized character occupies in a fight, and movement, reach and spell areas are measured in five-foot steps. A character with a speed of 30 feet moves six squares; a 20-foot-radius burst covers four squares out from its centre.
The scale also fits the miniatures. The common 25 mm round base for a human-sized figure sits inside a one-inch (25.4 mm) square with a hair to spare, and larger creatures take up 2 × 2 or 3 × 3 squares. That is why a battle map printed even slightly small causes trouble: bases start overlapping the grid lines and adjacency becomes ambiguous.
How much ground does a page cover?
Here is what a one-inch grid fits on common paper sizes in portrait, read from the generator. Turn the page to landscape and the numbers swap; each square is 5 feet of game space.
| Paper | 1 inch squares, default margins |
|---|---|
| US Letter | 7 × 10 |
| A4 | 7 × 10 |
| Tabloid / Ledger (11×17) | 10 × 16 |
| A3 | 10 × 15 |
Narrower margins add a column or row on some sizes. Set the margins to 1/4 inch (6.35 mm), about as close to the edge as most printers reach, and Letter becomes 8 × 10, A4 7 × 11 and A3 11 × 15 (the footer line takes a row); Tabloid stays 10 × 16. The generator’s printer-safe margins option never lets a margin go below 6 mm, so nothing falls into the unprintable edge. The spec table under the preview updates as you change size, orientation and margins, so you can check the count before printing.
A single Letter sheet is enough for a small room or a corridor junction. A typical tavern brawl or cave chamber wants something nearer 40 × 60 feet, which is where Tabloid or tiling comes in.
Battle maps on Tabloid paper
If your printer takes 11 × 17 inch paper, as many office printers and some home inkjets do, Tabloid is the easiest way to get a meaningful battlefield on one sheet. Landscape gives 16 × 10 squares, 80 × 50 feet, enough for most encounters. Set the 11 × 17 graph paper page to 1 inch squares and switch off bold lines, since every line on a battle map has the same meaning.
Outside North America, A3 (297 × 420 mm) is the nearest equivalent. One-inch squares work fine on A3; they simply leave slightly different margins.
Tiling Letter pages into a larger map
For a bigger map from an ordinary printer, print several Letter or A4 sheets and join them:
- Set up a 1 inch grid and set Pages in the PDF to the number of tiles you need, say four for a 2 × 2 map.
- Set the margins to 1/4 inch to keep each grid as large as possible, with printer-safe margins left on.
- Print at 100%. Check one page by measuring ten squares; it should be exactly 10 inches.
- Trim each page along its outermost grid line on the edges that will join. A steel ruler and craft knife give a cleaner edge than scissors.
- Butt the pages together, aligning the lines, and tape them on the back. Clear packing tape on the front lets you draw over joins with wet-erase markers.
Because the grid is centred on each page, the leftover border is even on both sides, which makes trimming predictable. For a durable mat, laminate the joined sheets or slide them under a sheet of acrylic.
Squares or hexes?
Both grids work at one inch. The choice changes how movement feels.
Square grids
Squares match the way people draw buildings: walls run straight, doors sit on edges, rooms are rectangles. They are the default for dungeon crawls and most published adventure maps.
The catch is diagonals. A diagonal step on a square grid actually covers about 1.41 times the distance of a straight step. Rules handle this in different ways. Fifth-edition D&D counts every square as 5 feet, diagonal or not. Pathfinder Second Edition, and an optional D&D rule, count the first diagonal as 5 feet and the second as 10, alternating, so long diagonals average out. Here is what each rule does to a 30 foot move, counted cell by cell:
- Every diagonal 5 ft169 squares
- Diagonals 5, then 10 ft121 squares
- Hex grid127 hexes
| Grid and rule | Cells in reach | Area vs the true circle | Furthest true distance | Shape |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Squares, every diagonal 5 ft | 169 | 149% | 42 ft | a square, not a circle |
| Squares, diagonals alternate 5 and 10 ft | 121 | 107% | 30 ft | an octagon |
| Hexes, 1 in across the flats | 127 | 97% | 30 ft | a hexagon |
| True circle, radius 30 ft | – | 100% | 30 ft | a circle |
With every diagonal at 5 feet, a 30 foot move covers half as much ground again as it should, and a character heading diagonally travels 42 real feet. The alternating rule lands within 7% of the true area and never strays more than a few inches past the true range. Hexes come closest of all, which is the real argument for them.
Hex grids
On a hex grid every neighbouring cell is the same distance away, so movement is equal in all six directions and there is no diagonal problem; as the table above shows, a hex range covers 97% of the true circle. Hexes are popular for wilderness encounters, ship-to-ship combat, wargames and overland maps where terrain does not follow straight walls.
Hexes come in two orientations:
- Flat-top hexes have a flat edge at the top and bottom, so columns of hexes run vertically.
- Pointy-top hexes have a corner at the top, so rows run horizontally.
For miniature play, the important measurement is across the flats: the distance between two parallel sides. Make that one inch. In the generator, choose Hexagonal paper and the 1″ across preset, which sets each side to 0.577 inch (14.66 mm), with corners 1.155 inches apart. Our 1 inch hex paper is already set this way.
Hexes are less friendly to indoor maps, since straight walls cut through cells at awkward angles. Many game masters use squares for dungeons and hexes for the world outside.
Other scales you may meet
- Overland hex maps often use much larger scales, such as 6 or 24 miles per hex, and are drawn on smaller hexes; 1/2 inch or 1/4 inch hex paper works well.
- Half-inch squares at 5 feet per square suit planning sketches and reference maps that won’t have miniatures on them.
- Wargames use their own conventions, frequently measured with tape rather than a grid.
Drawing on your map
A few practical tips:
- Choose a light grey line colour if you plan to draw terrain, so walls and features stand out from the grid.
- For a reusable mat, laminate the printout and use wet-erase markers, which don’t smudge as easily as dry-erase.
- Mark north and a scale bar (“1 square = 5 ft”) in a corner so players reading the map later know what they’re looking at.
- Save your setup with Copy link so the same grid is ready for the next session.
