I am trying to get a large map printed with highway/street level data. I found a printer who will print the map, but they need a pdf of the image I need. Is there an easy way to obtain such an image using Google maps or some other service? Thanks in advance.
In Chrome, if I right-click on the map and select Print, then click the Print button on the upper right, it’ll offer to print it on your printer, but if you select Change under the Destination, it offers to save it as a PDF.
Otherwise, if you have CutePDF installed, whenever you print anything you have option of selecting that as your printer and it’ll create a PDF for you.
I tried to do that, and ended up just cutting and pasting a lot. I’d “screen print” a section of the map, then painstakingly align it into the large graphics-file matrix I was building up. A little time-consuming, and not all the alignments were dead even, but the result was nice.
Things Take Time…
As noted, the resolution and detail are not high enough to do this afaict. Any other ideas?
I don’t understand. Will all the detail you want fit into a single Google Maps view, or do you need to view multiple maps to get the required detail. If the latter, how many maps are you looking at?
You could just buy a paper map. Those things still exist, don’t they?
use “google my map” … here’s the gist:
http://www.alvipixels.co.uk/blog/high_resolution_google_map_300dpi.php
albino_manatee: I tried that, and the only options are for standard paper sizes – letter, A4, etc. No option for printing to large paper, like 36" x 48".
I think my method of cutting and pasting from screen shots of smaller zones of the map is the only way to make this work, but I confess I’m far from certain.
If I understand you correctly, the boundaries of the map I want with the detail will not fit on one screen view.
They don’t sell them as large as I need it. I want to get a map that is about 6’x8’. It is going to be used to mark locations for a non-profit I work with.
Do you mind me asking how long it took you, and what stitching program you used?
I’m not seeing your problem. Use “save image” to save the map at maximum resolution (4800x2548) as a jpg graphic then print that image with a graphics program to a PDF. Alternatively just save it as hi res jpg and take it to the printer that way, if they can’t handle formatting and printing a jpg on their heavy duty imaging software they don’t belong in the printing business.
You have best check (if you can) that maximum resolution (4800x2548) is still going to look OK on a really big printout.
an alternative is, using google-my-map, export/import several layers … probably can move individual layers until they “line up” correctly … least this advantage will allow for vector presentation (instead of 72dpi raster).
good luck with your project.
brickbacon … if using raster-image … adobe’s photoshop-cc implements a utility called “photo-merge” … open all images you want stitched into one image … press a button … voilà!
Will the printer authorize printing Google Maps stuff? As far as I know, that stuff is copyrighted, and the printer might want some proof of permission before putting ink to paper.
Do you have drivers installed for a printer/plotter capable of printing 36x48?
I did it simple and stupid. Windows “Paint” and the windows prtscrn – print screen – key. I’d paste the image into one open Paint program so I could strip off all the extra stuff around the image – the Google Maps frame, etc. – then I cut and pasted the “good part” into another big instance of Paint.
Manually. Just fiddled the image up and down, left and right, until landmarks mated. Roads and rivers are good for aligning.
Total brute force, total manual labor.
My map was about ten by twelve of these frames, so, yeah, I did this operation 120 times. Took me a couple evenings. More fun that playing video games!
But this is the thing: MS Paint will allow you to work with pictures that are much bigger than a standard page. So when I took the final pdf of the immense monster to a professional print shop, they had a printer that could print it off (in my case I think it was 24" x 36".)