Hex Grid Generator
What Is a Hex Grid?
A hex grid is a tiling of hexagonal cells arranged in rows and columns. Unlike square grids, hexagons provide six equidistant neighbors for every cell, making movement and adjacency calculations more intuitive for strategy games, wargames, and tabletop RPG maps.
Hex grids have been a staple of game design since the 1960s. Classic wargames like Settlers of Catan, Twilight Imperium, and Gloomhaven all rely on hexagonal maps to create spatial puzzles where positioning, territory control, and path planning matter. Dungeon masters use hex maps for overland travel, and indie designers reach for hex layouts whenever they need a playing surface that feels organic rather than rigid.
Building hex grids by hand is tedious. Each hexagon needs precise coordinates, consistent sizing, and uniform spacing. Drawing even a 5×5 grid in Illustrator or Photoshop means placing 25 individual polygons, aligning them pixel by pixel, and hoping you do not accidentally nudge one out of position when you adjust the layout later.
How Chitmunk's Hex Grid Generator Works
Chitmunk's hex grid generator is a parametric tool built into the card and board designer. You configure a handful of settings and the generator renders a complete, perfectly aligned hex grid instantly:
- Orientation: choose between pointy-top and flat-top hexagons. Pointy-top is the most common layout for strategy games; flat-top is popular in wargames and some tile-laying designs.
- Columns and rows: set the grid dimensions. Need a small 3×3 tile for a card component? A sprawling 12×10 map for a full game board? The generator handles both.
- Gap: add spacing between cells for a cleaner look, or set the gap to zero for edge-to-edge hexagons.
- Colors: set the fill color, border color, and border width. Use transparent fills to create outlined grids, or assign terrain colors to individual cells for map-style designs.
- Coordinates: optionally show coordinate labels on each cell for reference grids and wargame hex maps.
Every change updates the live preview in the configuration modal. When you are happy with the result, click Apply and the hex grid appears on your canvas as a single, resizable element. Move it, scale it, layer it with other elements; it behaves like any other design component.
Who Is This For?
Strategy and wargame designers. If your game involves area control, movement across terrain, or tile-laying, a hex grid is the foundation of your board. Generate the grid, export it at print resolution, and send it to your manufacturer.
D&D and TTRPG mapmakers. Hex maps are the standard for wilderness and overland travel in tabletop RPGs. Generate a blank hex grid, layer it onto a parchment background, and annotate it with icons, text labels, and terrain markers using Chitmunk's design tools.
Board game prototypers. When you need a hex map for a playtest, speed matters more than polish. The generator lets you produce a functional hex grid in seconds, export it as a PNG, and print it at home. Iterate on the grid dimensions between playtests without redrawing anything.
Teachers and students. Hex grids appear in math, geography, and game design curricula. Generate grids for classroom exercises, worksheets, or student game projects.
Hex Grids vs. Drawing Manually
In a vector editor like Illustrator or Inkscape, building a hex grid means:
- Drawing a single hexagon with the correct vertex coordinates.
- Duplicating it across the canvas with precise horizontal and vertical offsets that alternate per row (or column, for flat-top).
- Manually adjusting spacing if you want gaps between cells.
- Rebuilding the entire layout if you change the grid dimensions or switch between pointy-top and flat-top orientation.
With Chitmunk, you change a dropdown and a couple of number fields. The generator recalculates every cell position instantly. Resize the element on the canvas and the grid scales proportionally. No manual alignment, no off-by-one-pixel errors, no wasted afternoon.
Need to change orientation from pointy-top to flat-top after building your entire board layout? Double-click the generator, flip the dropdown, click Apply. Done.
Try It Now
The hex grid generator is available in Chitmunk's editor as part of the Pro plan. Open the editor, click Generators in the toolbar, and select Hex Grid from the palette. Configure your grid and place it on the canvas.
Three generators: Score Track, Dice Face, and Progress Bar, are free to use without an account. The hex grid generator and the remaining 22 generators are unlocked with a Pro subscription. Try the free generators first to experience the full workflow, then upgrade when you are ready.