Touring - mapping help

Hi,

I was referred over to you map-savvy people for a problem I'm working on for my job. I'm trying to generate a street map on which I have marked multiple points. I've tried pedometer-gmap, frappr, and other stuff so far, to little avail. The best I've done has been to get a map on google earth, but w/all the photo/satellite detailing, it's not very useful for my purposes. Can anyone help me get something like this printed up? It was even suggested to me to copy and paste a map into word, and edit it that way, but the online mapping programs haven't really allowed me to copy their image (they allow a copy of the URL, but not the actual image.) If anyone in this forum can help me, it'd be an enormous benefit.

Thanks,

max

Try GIS use TIGER data for the street map of the area you want. IF you want to tell me the area you want to put points on I may be able to help, I could generate a map on the schools GIS system.
You can sometimes right click on the picture or map itself and use the save as option to save it to the hard drive. Photoshop can be used to make points and lines on a map or picture.

I generate maps for my job too. I've co-ordinated everything from a city bike map to a map used for a geography quiz.

We usually do a needs assessment for our clients. Do you need a cartographic, topographic, a cartoon map et al? Word is not a program I would generate a map in.

Also, what are you doing with this map? Maps are proprietous, in that the person, or business who made them, owns them. You may have to pay to use someone elses map. Further, can the map be of low bitmap quality or should it be vector?

It is difficult to answer your questions without knowing what the map will be used for and who the end user is.

I hope this helps.

Crazygreenbiker has a good point. Good maps require an incredible amount of work and it is fair that they be proprietory so their creators get some return for their effort. Given that contact the people who have the map closest to what you want, ask to modify their image for personal use only and promise them a copy for their use (and their copyrighting). Or just buy your own hi-rez color scanner and steal the image.:mad: :mad: I like Photoshop for image manipulation.

if you have the time and motivation, GMT (http://gmt.soest.hawaii.edu/) is an excellent open-source (free) mapping software. you could also try GRASS, although i don't have much experience with it. as with any mapping software, you will need to either use some type of data base containing in your case road and route info or else steal an image, geographically fix a couple of reference points on it, and then overlay your route. the GMT cookbook is an excellent learning resource to teach you how to use the software. installation is easiest on 1) linux or sun or 2) mac => OSX. With windows you need CYGWIN, a unix imulator. gees, i've turned this into a computer forum...

or, use the simpler solution suggested above. scan and then draw your route over it with something like photoshop, illustrator, or corel draw.

I use Delorme software to create maps for the company I work for... Easy to mark a route, add extra flags, descriptions, etc.

Street Atlas or TopoUSA from Delorme will generally do what you want. TopoUSA gives you topographic data if you need it.

Microsoft also has a street routing product that may do what you want. Any of these products should cost less than $100.