Welcome to PZ Map Studio

This tool is a work in progress. Some features may change and you might run into bugs.

Found a bug or have a suggestion? Send it to Dox on Discord: stexo_0

Tip: the editor starts in Simple mode. Switch to Advanced in the top right for more tools, importing, and custom palettes.

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PZ Map Studio

Draws Project Zomboid world-map images. 1 pixel = 1 in-game tile and 1 cell = 300×300 px. Everything is drawn with hard pixel edges (no antialiasing, no blending), so WorldEd always recognizes your colors exactly.

Workflow

Paint terrain (roads, grass, dirt, water) on base-map layers and tree or grass cover on vegetation-map layers, then export both files: name.bmp and name_veg.bmp. PNG also works in modern WorldEd builds. Both files must sit in the same folder and share the same extension.

Layers

Every layer belongs to one of two groups: Base map or Vegetation map. Add as many as you like (for example separate layers for roads, water and buildings), rename them by double-clicking, reorder them with the arrows, and toggle each one's visibility. On export, all visible layers in a group flatten into that group's single image. Opacity only affects the preview, not the exported pixels.

Tips from the official guide and WorldEd rules:

• Any base pixel WorldEd does not recognize (including the white background) places no tile. Cover all playable ground with real terrain colors before exporting.
• Classic forest recipe: flood-fill a vegetation layer with Light long grass (0,255,0), paint black over roads, water, sand and buildings, then add denser tree colors on top.
• Vegetation colors marked (grass only) only work where the base pixel underneath is one of the three grass colors. Dense forest and the corn colors work anywhere.
• The palette lock (Settings, on by default) keeps base colors on base layers and vegetation colors on vegetation layers. Clicking a swatch from the other group switches to a matching layer for you. Custom and extracted colors are never restricted.
• The Natural tool (N) scatters organic patches of the current color: paint the area to cover, pick a base or vegetation color, then Reroll until the pattern looks right and Apply. Great for small clumps of trees or grass. Coverage, patch size and edge roughness are adjustable.
• Load Rules.txt (Palette section) reads your WorldEd Rules.txt and shows exactly the colors your setup recognizes, including mod or custom rules, as base and vegetation palette groups that follow the layer lock. By default it replaces the built-in palette; untick "Show only Rules.txt colors" to see both, or Clear to restore the built-ins.
• Importing an image smaller than the canvas opens a placement picker so you can choose which cell it lands in. The paste can be undone.
• Simple mode (top right) gives a cleaner, minimal layout. Switch to Advanced for shape tools, importing, custom palettes and per-layer exports.

Shortcuts

B Brush	E Eraser	L Line
D Road	R Rectangle	O Ellipse
F Flood fill	T Forest spray	N Natural
I Eyedropper	C Cell select	G Toggle grid
[ / ] Brush size	Enter apply (Road / Natural)
Ctrl+Z Undo	Ctrl+Y Redo	+/−/0/1 Zoom

Mouse

Wheel	Zoom at cursor
Space-drag / middle-drag	Pan
Alt+click	Eyedropper (any tool)
Shift+click (brush/eraser)	Straight line from last stamp

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