How to get good region pictures?

[bitsaul 9]

I've been looking to start a city journal soon and would like some good pictures of my overall region.  The thing that kills screen-shotting it is the huge menus that block so much of the screen.  Is there a way to remove the region view toolbars/menus? (something similar to the infamous "yellow pause thingy remover" mod perhaps)

 

I came across something called the "Region Census by sawtooth" which supposedly takes some regions pictures but I also read that it doesn't work well on larger regions and I have a 207 tile map... that's large btw

 

Thanks for any suggestions

[Prophet42 1,500]

Download the 'Region Census' by sawtooth.  You will be able to get great region shots with his program.  Even with lager regions, the region census can still take descent shots.  You may have to take them in sections and then stitch them together with another graphics program.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

You know that you can remove the city-mode GUI completely?  Just click on the bar in the lower left corner.

 

For screenies, please remember to convert them to JPG for your journal.  Much faster and the detail really doesn't suffer.

[Priyon 16]

Download the 'Region Census' by sawtooth.  You will be able to get great region shots with his program.  Even with lager regions, the region census can still take descent shots.  You may have to take them in sections and then stitch them together with another graphics program.

 

Region Census does have a limit to amont of regions though.

 

I tried converting my 20x20 large city tile flat region (80km x 80km) and it crashed every time. Meanwhile I built cities on an 8x8 large city tile square on the same region, and they can be rendered without problems.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

If you can't get the Region Census to work, then with some care you can take multiple screenies and join them using a good editor like the GIMP.  This will involve some serious work in not only stitching up the separate shots, but eliminating unwanted GUI junk as well.

 

When making the screen shots, be careful to keep the POV the same.

[Cyclone Boom 16,829]

Another possibility is to open each city snapshot using the Reader. These contain the PNG file which makes up the snapshots, and can be exported and then individually merged like Nonny explained. Just order the list by "Entry", and select Save selected file(s) for the correct one. This will correspond to the city's preview on the right side:

 

 

 

This removes the clutter and the background is transparent. It'd take a bit of work (such as to remove the black outline), but is certainly achievable for larger regions...that's with a bit of patience! Really, that's what the Region Census does in processing multiple at once.

 

Once the montage is created, it can be edited as desired, then saved in the preferred JPG format.