Custom Maps – From Page Size to Poster Size

In the custom map making business – a lot of the rules of map making are changing.

We recently added two new templates to MapSherpa giving users the option to order large format maps from MapSherpa. The two new templates allow you to choose to have your map printed on paper or plastic pending on how you intend to use the maps. Plastic maps are ideal for outdoor activities as they provide an additional degree of protection from the elements.

With this new addition to MapSherpa, I thought it would be worthwhile to talk about our process for map making so that our readers can understand some of the nuts and bolts of  how we’re getting you the maps you need.

Maps The Traditional Way

To understand what we’re doing differently though, you first need to understand how it’s always been done.

The traditional process of map making involves a series of steps that vary by company, but fundamentally look something like this:

• Step 1 – Decide on a set of maps that an organization wants to mass produce for distribution. Area to be covered in the map is determined essentially by supply and demand — if sufficient maps are needed for a particular area, a map can be made for the region
• Step 2 -Collect the raw geographic data for the areas of interest and convert into a usable form. This is either in a format suiable for use in a Geographic Information System – GIS, or a graphic production package.
• Step 3 -Create High Quality Cartographic products that get as much relevant info onto the map that informs without overwhelming the map reader
• Step 4 -Mass production and distribution of map products
• Step 5 – Go back to step 1.

Although this model has worked extremely well for generations, the shortcomings are apparent for anyone who has been in one of these situations:

• What if the area I’m interested in doesn’t reach the critical mass required to make a mass production run worthwhile?
• The area I’m actually interested in is at the intersection of two or more map products.
• The information on the map is helpful – but I want to see more detail.
• I know something about this area or a planned route that I want to include in this map to make it ‘mine’ – how can I do that?

Many of the decisions that the traditional map making forces upon our cartographers are not really about customer demand, but about limitations in technology.

Here’s what we’re trying to do about that …

Map Making On Demand

By using the power of web technologies and modern web browsers, we can turn this process on it’s head. Here’s the process we go through to make maps available through MapSherpa:

• Select a geographic coverage area we want to allow people to create maps within for which we can get relevant data — for now we say Canada. All of it. And we’ll give users intuitive search tools to find the area they want and centre the map on the exact areas they are interested in.
• For data we can’t provide – let’s give our users the tools to create and integrate their own content
• We want maps to be created at all kinds of resolutions — so we define cartographic rules that apply at various ranges of resolutions giving our users a high quality map at the map scale of their choosing. This means we can add more detail as a user ‘zooms in’.
• Quality is still important — so production quality maps remains priority whether that’s for our own data, or for user contributed content.
• Maps of all sizes — people don’t always want wall maps so we give users the option to pick a map size.
• Make improvements to the above giving users more choice and better quality results.

The Result – Topo Maps with an Advantage

This means you can get the equivalent of a topographic map that you would buy at a map store, but with a few very significant advantages:

• Maps are rendered from source data – not ‘photocopies’ of topo sheets. This means you decide the resolution you want and still get maps rendered from source resulting in high cartographic and print quality.
• Incorporation of NAVTEQ data gives you a labeled, current, and well classified road network.
• That area of interest that’s right at the intersection of 4 maps? Now you can centre the map to get this exact area on a single sheet.
• You can add your own content (trails, cottages, portages, etc..) and have it plotted as if it was part of the original base map

We just like to think we’re giving you the tools to make you the map maker instead of us. We don’t know what each and every one of our users want. Instead of trying to figure it all out – we’ll try to give you the power to take charge of getting the map you really need.

If you have any feedback on this blog entry or anything else — please provide your comments on our support page. Until we have comments enabled on this blog – I’ll post any comments folks may have about this entry back to our readers.