Why does measuring give different answers on hexes and squares?

Because they are different grids. On squares, a diagonal step counts as one, so the distance is whichever of the two directions is longer. On hexes there are six neighbours and every other row is offset, so the tool converts to axial coordinates and measures properly. A tool that measured a hex grid as if it were squares would be wrong for most pairs of cells.

How do I move a token?

Two taps. Tap the token to pick it up, then tap an empty cell to put it down. A token will not go on top of another one, which is the rule most skirmish games want and is easier to enforce here than on a table.

Where are my saved boards?

In this browser, up to ten of them. They never leave the device, so they will not follow you to another laptop, and clearing your site data for papercarnival.com clears them. Saving under a name you have used before replaces that one.

The board and the tokens on a white background, drawn fresh when you press the button. Nothing else: no names outside the tokens, no metadata, no watermark. It is made on your device and downloaded straight from it, so it is never uploaded anywhere.

Can I share a board with somebody?

Only as a picture. A share link carries the shape and the size, which is what a second person needs to start the same kind of board, and nothing about what you painted, because that would mean putting your work into a URL.

★ Step right up · free forever ★

Hex board

Paint terrain on a hex or square grid, drop tokens for each player, move them, and save the board in your browser.

Made by the PaperCarnival team · Updated 2026-09-22

0 of 81 painted

Hexes or squares

How many across

Between 5 and 20 across. Making the board smaller keeps the top left corner and drops the rest.

The brush

Paint, place tokens, or measure between two cells

No signup · No accounts · Free forever

Hexes in plain words

Squares have a problem that hexes do not: the diagonal. On a square grid, the cell corner to corner is either one step, which makes diagonal movement faster than straight movement, or one and a half, which needs a rule everybody forgets. On a hex grid every neighbour is the same distance away, which is why wargames have used them for sixty years.

The cost is that hexes are laid out in offset rows, so the cell below and to the left is a neighbour on one row and two steps away on the next. Measuring by counting rows and columns gives the wrong answer about half the time. This board converts to the three-axis coordinates hex maths uses and measures properly, which is the whole reason the measure mode is worth having.

Names come from the same shared list every tool here with players uses. For dice to move the tokens with, the dice pool rolls anything from a d4 to a d100, and for whose turn it is while the board is out, the turn order cards settle it in one deal.

Kept in this browser under pph.hex.boards, pph.hex.current and pph.players, and nowhere else. Accounts, printing, storage and what the page loads are answered on the FAQ.

Questions

Why does measuring give different answers on hexes and squares?: Because they are different grids. On squares, a diagonal step counts as one, so the distance is whichever of the two directions is longer. On hexes there are six neighbours and every other row is offset, so the tool converts to axial coordinates and measures properly. A tool that measured a hex grid as if it were squares would be wrong for most pairs of cells.
How do I move a token?: Two taps. Tap the token to pick it up, then tap an empty cell to put it down. A token will not go on top of another one, which is the rule most skirmish games want and is easier to enforce here than on a table.
Where are my saved boards?: In this browser, up to ten of them. They never leave the device, so they will not follow you to another laptop, and clearing your site data for papercarnival.com clears them. Saving under a name you have used before replaces that one.
What is in the PNG?: The board and the tokens on a white background, drawn fresh when you press the button. Nothing else: no names outside the tokens, no metadata, no watermark. It is made on your device and downloaded straight from it, so it is never uploaded anywhere.
Can I share a board with somebody?: Only as a picture. A share link carries the shape and the size, which is what a second person needs to start the same kind of board, and nothing about what you painted, because that would mean putting your work into a URL.

Hex board

Hexes in plain words

Questions

More from Tabletop and role-play

Fog of war board

Dungeon room generator

Boss phase tracker