A common practice in DIY wargaming is creating counters. While
there are many templates and other artwork resources available on the internet,
it can be useful to know how to generate a countersheet from scratch. This
tutorial will show you how to do just that, using the free vector art program Inkscape
(available here ). I don’t claim this to be the best way to make counters, but it
is at the very least a useful exercise, especially if you are new to using Inkscape.
First, create a new document in Inkscape. Next, go to File /
Document Properties to set the size of the page. This countersheet will be
designed for US Letter 8.5 X 11 inch paper in landscape. However, we want the
document to be print-and-play friendly, and most home printers have a “print
range” i.e they won’t print to the entire width and height of the page. The
print range varies, but .25’’ margins are a safe bet. So we are going to set
the width of the document to 10.75, and the height to 8.25.
Next, use the square tool to draw a square. These will be
5/8 counters so change the width and height to 0.625 inches.
Open the Fill and Stroke dialog box and set the fill to none
and the stroke to 0.010 in. This will allow some room for cutting the counters
out.
Use the Align and Distribute dialog box align the square to
the top and left edges of the page. Next, go to Edit / Clone / Create Tiled
Clones.
Ensure the setting are as pictured and create a nice 8 X 2
grid. Make sure to group them all as one object.
From here, you can simply copy and paste four more of the
same object. Align them all to the left edge of the page, and align the bottom
most grid to the bottom edge of the page. Under distribute, select “make
vertical gaps between objects equal.”
Group the entire object, copy and paste once more, and align
to the top and right edges of the page.
Open the layer dialog, and create a layer named “counter
outlines” and move everything we have so far to this layer
At this point I decided to add a title to our countersheet
and re-adjusted the vertical gaps. So far we have created a blank countersheet
template. Save the file for future use!
Let’s create a few companies of Marines for a Platoon level
game, starting with some infantry markers. First make a new layer, and name it
“infantry.” A quick Google search will yield plenty of NATO symbols to make use
of. Add one and center it in the first counter. From here, we have a couple
different options. We could individually copy, paste, and align each symbol we
need into each individual counter. This is a good technique when there are just
a few counters to make, or when dealing with many different unique graphics.
However, we want to automate things a little bit, so let’s create a tiled
clone. Inkscape tiles clones based on a percentage of the original object’s
size, so we are going to have to use a little bit of high school math to tell
Inkscape exactly where to put every one of our infantry symbols. To find out
what percentage we need the Infantry symbol to move along the x axis, divide
.625 by the width of the symbol and multiply by 100. To find how far along the
y axis to move, divide .625 by the height of the symbol and multiply by 100
once more. Placing the appropriate numbers in the x and y columns of the Clones
dialog box, making sure that the "exclude tile" checkbox is checked
for both.
Using a combination of the techniques we have learned so far,
we can now fill in the rest of information we want on the counters, remembering
to assign them to their own layers. Here, I have added information for unit
size, nationality, platoon and company markings, and placeholder text for game
system information (like movement, range, etc.) The alignment tool is your
friend!
Now we add color! Select each layer one at a time, and,
using the Fill and Stroke dialog, fill the elements you wish to add color to
within each layer.
Finally, to export as a ready to print image, go back to the
document properties and change the document size back to 11 X 8.5. Next, select
all and group everything together as one group. Align this group to the center
of the page. Export at 400dpi, and make sure the export area is set to "Page."
There you have it!
If you would like to use the files created in this tutorial, you may download them from my google drive here.
