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help printing poster sized *.mp format maps

Started by newwood, August 01, 2009, 09:16:57 AM

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newwood

I've run into this frustrating problem with the *.mp maps that I've made and then want to print in large format (2' X 3' and larger).  I can do this in an awkward way from GPSmapedit by exporting them as bmp files but there's a nasty trade off between fine resolution (so that diagonal lines don't look jagged) and line width (at acceptable resolution, roads and rivers become such thin lines they are hard to see).  GPSmapedit doesn't allow much flexibility here--essentially the resolution and pixel size for the bmp files are controlled by the zoom level and you have to take what you get.

It's not such a problem when you're just printing on standard paper--but when you go large format you don't get an acceptable result.  Anyone have an alternative program for printing or some other work around?

Newwood

newwood

The printer I can't answer--I've been shipping them off to a friend to print--an architect with a large format injet printer.

re other software: yes, although none of them seem to solve this problem either because the shareware version won't import the files correctly or because they don't have any (much less better) printer support.

The major problem seems to be the width definition of any line is only one or two pixels, so at high resolution these are very thin. Yes, photoshop elements and other things--what specifically are you looking for?

newwood

Actually I had tried bringing it into global mapper, but for some reason it oddly distorts the image of the map compressing it from top to bottom to make it into a square.  It also really messes with the various polygon fills and colors so pretty much makes a hash of the whole map.  Not a great result for me (but thanks for trying).

newwood

newwood

OK, I'll investigate the printer type and report back.  Any hints on why, when I bring the MP file into Global Mapper I get a distorted projection?  I have no problem converting the MP and bringing it into mapsource with the correct projection.

newwood

#4
Oh one last bit: so is there any way to define a thicker line in GPSmapedit (I've checked all the existing lines and am using the thickest available so the default options don't supply a solution).
newwood

newwood

I solved the projection issue: needed to be in mercator. 

Yes, I can go into global mapper and change the line thickness, but printing to file still produces these awful primitive lines such that any diagonal is a jagged series of horizontal and vertical lines (and global mapper seems even worse at creating that sort of output when in a bmp file)

newwood

#6
Capture screen wouldn't work for an image of this detail.  
the printer is an HP Designjet 250 (A to D size) which can print up to Arch D size (24x36).

But even within global mapper it appears that an image that you see at relatively low resolution (e.g. fitting the entire map on a computer screen as suggested) will look very bad when magnified up to how it would look when printed in large format (i.e. lots of thick jagged lines).  If you set the resolution to something that gives acceptable resolution (e.g. 1:3000) then the lines become very thin (and of course file size is huge).  It seems like these images are always defined by pixels rather than by drawing elements (vectors) and so there is this tradeoff that needs to be worked out for any large format print?

newwood

Hi newwood
I was wondering if you ever got your printing issues in gpsmapedit worked out? If you did I was wondering how. I am getting ready to try to find a way to print  some huge maps I created in mapedit. So far my solution is to export a oziexplorer bitmap and print it or convert it to .pdf.

Also I know how to set up gpsmapedit to make the custom lines you need ( from your printing post ) if you still need help with that let me know.
Thanks
Freecat

Hi Freecat
Yes, at least a workable solution (although custom lines would help so I'll be interested in that).  The zoom level that you are at within mapedit at the time you export to oxiexplorer (which generates a bitmap image and is the only way of getting an image out) sets the resolution.  So you have to zoom quite far in before exporting (I'll have to check my notes at home tonight to see what I usually do).  During the export dialog you have the option to export the whole map or a portion of the map (either the visible portion or by setting coordinates) so you can get more than what you are looking at on screen.  These can result in huge bitmap files that are unreadable by most programs (although Adobe Presentations has worked for me for most) and also makes lines very thin and any symbols are shrunk to tiny sizes.  So there is a tradeoff between resolution (bad resolution shows up as jagged lines) vs thin lines and tiny symbols.  You can compensate a bit by using thick lines, but the available selection of lines do not have sufficient width in terms of pixels to fully compensate to my liking (so I'll be interested whether you've found a way to change pixel width of lines). 

I've had good success with then saving the bitmap image as a pdf (depending on the software you use to do this conversion you may face some additional choices that affect image quality--I get some odd smudging if I don't use high enough resolution in the conversion/save option within Adobe presentation, but nothing too objectionable).  The pdf files are then quite transportable.

I don't know how to correct the shrinkage of symbols--these apparently are bitmapped and as pixel size shrinks they get smaller.

Newwood

freecat

#8
Hi newwood
Thanks for the info. The test prints I have done so far have been around 900ft zoom in mapedit the lines and look good and the symbols are a usable size The only way I can think of to change those line widths like your talking about is to use custom types but that's very easy to do with GenTyp
I made a little How-to on using the custom lines in gpsmapedit you can find it here:
http://forums.gpsfiledepot.com/index.php/topic,1031.0.html

Below is a sample type file(made with gentyp) that will give you a place to start . It will assign some various custom line widths, colors, borders to 5 different lines at 0x10, 0x11, 0x12, 0x13, 0x30 just change the border width and line width to what you want in pixels. Set your color(html Hex format) color 1 is the center line, color 2 is the border. Then follow the how-to above to load it into mapedit. Hmmm I was just thinking maybe you could make over sized custom symbols that would shrink down to the correct size when printed. I'll give that a try when i get a chance.

Note save code below as a .txt file
[_id]
ProductCode=7728
FID=1
[End]

[_drawOrder]
Type=0x01,1
Type=0x02,1
Type=0x03,1
Type=0x04,1
Type=0x05,1
Type=0x06,1
Type=0x07,1
Type=0x08,1
Type=0x09,1
Type=0x0a,1
Type=0x0b,1
Type=0x0c,1
Type=0x0d,1
Type=0x0e,1
Type=0x0f,1
Type=0x10,1
Type=0x11,1
Type=0x12,1
Type=0x13,1
Type=0x14,1
Type=0x15,1
Type=0x16,1
Type=0x17,1
Type=0x18,1
Type=0x19,1
Type=0x1a,1
Type=0x1e,1
Type=0x1f,1
Type=0x20,1
Type=0x21,1
Type=0x22,1
Type=0x23,1
Type=0x24,1
Type=0x25,1
Type=0x26,1
Type=0x27,1
Type=0x28,1
Type=0x29,1
Type=0x32,1
Type=0x3b,1
Type=0x3c,1
Type=0x3d,1
Type=0x3e,1
Type=0x3f,1
Type=0x40,1
Type=0x41,1
Type=0x42,1
Type=0x43,1
Type=0x44,1
Type=0x45,1
Type=0x46,1
Type=0x47,1
Type=0x48,1
Type=0x49,1
Type=0x4c,1
Type=0x4d,1
Type=0x4e,1
Type=0x4f,1
Type=0x50,1
Type=0x51,1
Type=0x52,1
Type=0x53,1
[end]



[_line]
Type=0x10
BorderWidth=1
LineWidth=2
XPM="0 0 2 0"
"1 c #7A3000"
"2 c #000000"
[end]




[_line]
Type=0x11
BorderWidth=1
LineWidth=3
XPM="0 0 2 0"
"1 c #FFFF01"
"2 c #000000"
[end]




[_line]
Type=0x12
BorderWidth=2
LineWidth=24
XPM="0 0 2 0"
"1 c #FF6541"
"2 c #000000"
[end]



[_line]
Type=0x13
BorderWidth=1
LineWidth=1
XPM="0 0 2 0"
"1 c #B4B4B4"
"2 c #000000"
[end]



[_line]
Type=0x30
BorderWidth=2
LineWidth=2
XPM="0 0 2 0"
"1 c #FFFF01"
"2 c #B4B4B4"
[end]


newwood

I think I have to zoom in a lot closer than that to get a good image, but that probably relates to size of the area you're trying cover and how big a print your going to make.  Takes a few trials to get it right.

Thanks for the line width typ file.  I saw your thread on that and was going to give it a try.  I did try using the web site Boyd mentioned typedecomp website for editing custom types: http://ati.land.cz/gps/typdecomp, to modify some existing typ files but oddly it didn't seem to save the modifications to the files.  I must have been missing something.  Nonetheless, I think I need your typ file prototype in any case because it sounds like gpsmapedit wouldn't have recognized the compiled version anyway and needs the txt file loaded?

Newwood

freecat

#10
Hi newwood
I have used that typdecomp site, sometimes it works for me sometimes not and you can only DLD the compiled (.typ) files. >:( . I was able to get 1 .typ file to load in mapedit by renaming it to foo.txt but it acted odd. I think .txt files are the only way to go. The text files are easier to work with anyways since you can edit them in notepad and thats way faster than recompiling every-time.
I think I am going to have a slow work day and hope to start working on some custom symbols for POIs today. I will try several different sizes to see if I can get one to look good on a printed map and will let you know what I find out.

I just ran across this. It is a complete custom typ file example with lots of comments and notes. It should come in handy for anyone making custom types.
http://www.cgpsmapper.com/download/custom.txt

Freecat