How to Make a Printable Hex or Square Grid Game Board
Plenty of card games need a board to play on: a map, a track or a battlefield. Here's how to choose between hexes and squares, size the cells, print a board bigger than your paper, and put it together.
· 4 min read
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A lot of card games turn out to need a board: a map to move on, a track to score on, a grid to place cards or units. You don't need a print shop or design skills to make one. A grid, a home printer and some glue will do for every prototype.
Hexes or squares?
Squares are simple and familiar. Players count moves easily, and cards or tiles fit neatly. The catch is diagonals: is a diagonal step one move or two? Whichever you choose, it needs a rule.
Hexes have six neighbours, all the same distance away, so movement and range feel natural and there's no diagonal problem. They suit maps, wargames and territory games. The cost: they're harder to fit cards into, and harder to explain in text ("the hex north-east of you").
A quick rule: if pieces move around a map, use hexes. If cards or tiles are placed in a grid, use squares.
Choosing a cell size
- 1 inch (25.4 mm) is the standard for miniatures and most wargames.
- A card-sized cell (say 70 × 95 mm for poker cards with a little room) if cards sit in the grid.
- Bigger cells if several tokens share a space.
Hex size is measured across the flat sides. Lay out the pieces that go in a cell and measure what they need.
Point-up or flat-top?
Hexes come in two orientations:
- Point-up hexes have a corner at the top and sit in rows, every other row shifted half a hex.
- Flat-top hexes have a flat side at the top and sit in columns, every other column shifted.
It mostly affects which direction feels like "straight ahead". If your board is wider than tall, flat-top often looks better.
Make the grid
The free grid generator makes a printable hex or square grid:
Hex and square grid generator
Make a printable hex or square grid for a game board, map or play mat: pick the board or paper size, the cell size, orientation, offset, labels and colours, and download a PDF (split over pages for big boards) or a PNG. Free, in your browser, with no sign-up.
Pick the board or paper size, the cell size, the orientation and offset, labels and colours, and download a PDF or a PNG. It fits as many whole cells as the board holds and centres them.
Labels: number cells A1 style (a letter for the row, a number for the column) or as x,y coordinates. Labels make rules and remote playtests much easier: "move to C4" beats "move to the hex by the river".
Board sizes
Folding game boards come in standard sizes, all folding to 9 × 9 inches:
- Bifold: 18 × 9 in
- Quadfold: 18 × 18 in
- Six-fold: 27 × 18 in
The card size guide has a page for each, with bleed and a template:
Card size guide and blank templates
Poker, bridge, tarot, mini, square and more card sizes, with tokens, hex tiles and game boards: trim, bleed and safe zone in mm, inches and pixels at 300 DPI, and a free blank template for each, as a PNG with guides or a printable PDF sheet.
Printing a board bigger than your paper
A board bigger than your paper is printed as tiles. The grid generator's PDF splits it over several pages, starting with an assembly map that names each piece. Pages overlap by 10 mm (5–20 mm if you prefer), with crosshairs in the overlap.
To put it together:
- Print every page at 100% ("Actual size"). Check your printer first, or the pieces won't meet:
Printer calibration page
Print one Letter or A4 page with a 50 mm square, a poker card outline and rulers to check your printer prints cards at the right size, and learn how to fix it when it doesn’t. Free, in your browser, with no sign-up.
- Trim each page along one edge of its overlap.
- Line up the crosshairs with the next page's and glue or tape from behind.
- For a sturdy board, glue the assembled sheet to thick card or foam board.
Painting your own map
Want terrain, rivers or a theme? Download the grid as a PNG at 300 DPI, leave the cells empty and the board white, and paint over it in any image editor. Keep the grid lines on a layer above your art so they stay visible.
Keep the board with the rest of the game
In Decklab AI, boards are components like cards and tokens, in the same project and printed from the same export. Boards too big for the page are split across sheets with a map, just like the grid generator.