OT: Good map print server on the web?

[Joerg]

Hello Folks,

With Google and Mapquest printing out B/W maps for biz trips has become
almost useless. Prints only half a page, lettering fuzzy, street
outlines next to invisible.

Does anyone know a better map service that prints _legible_ maps without
nonsensical fluff and bonbon colors around them?

 

[Joerg]

I use Microsoft!!! Streets 2010, plus I travel with a Garmin Nuvi.

Yes, yes, some day I might buy a GPS. But it's one more gizmo to carry.
And I don't want to have the laptop sitting in the passenger seat. It
used to be so easy, Google maps .. print one side airport to client or
home to client, other side for the local map ... done. No more, they
broke it :-(

 

[Rich Webb]

Hello Folks,

With Google and Mapquest printing out B/W maps for biz trips has become
almost useless. Prints only half a page, lettering fuzzy, street
outlines next to invisible.

Does anyone know a better map service that prints _legible_ maps without
nonsensical fluff and bonbon colors around them?

Delorme? Not web-based but ...

I used the Delorme Street Atlas products back in the ancient days before
GPS was available. The current product is pretty affordable (and it can
talk to a GPS!) and has been polished over the years.

The routing is flexible and you can print a one-pager, or "individual
strip-map" AAA-style, turns, etc. Pretty customizable as well as
readable/useable. "Map-style" colors.

I (slightly) miss the geeky days of strapping the laptop into the
passenger seat and plugging in the old serial-port Earthmate GPS. Ahhh,
those were the days...

 

[[email protected]]

Yes, yes, some day I might buy a GPS. But it's one more gizmo to carry.

My cell phone beats any dedicated GPS I've ever used. Even very recent
streets are in there.

And I don't want to have the laptop sitting in the passenger seat. It
used to be so easy, Google maps .. print one side airport to client or
home to client, other side for the local map ... done. No more, they
broke it :-(

I have DeLorme Street Atlas for my laptop (and netbook). I updated it once,
from 2008 to 2011. There are streets that were there in 2007 that still
aren't in the 2011 version, like the one I live on.

 

[[email protected]]

Delorme? Not web-based but ...
....crap.

I used the Delorme Street Atlas products back in the ancient days before
GPS was available. The current product is pretty affordable (and it can
talk to a GPS!) and has been polished over the years.

But, contrary to their claims, it's *way* out of date. It's useless for
subdivisions that have gone in over the last five to seven years. I give it
two thumbs down.

The routing is flexible and you can print a one-pager, or "individual
strip-map" AAA-style, turns, etc. Pretty customizable as well as
readable/useable. "Map-style" colors.

I (slightly) miss the geeky days of strapping the laptop into the
passenger seat and plugging in the old serial-port Earthmate GPS. Ahhh,
those were the days...

Delorme has a BlueTooth attached GPS. Two thumbs down on it, too. OTOH, my
smart phone is fantastic. I bought SWMBO (and can't read maps) a GPS a few
years ago. It's about to be replaced by her cell phone and a windshield mount.

 

[Jasen Betts]

Hello Folks,

With Google and Mapquest printing out B/W maps for biz trips has become
almost useless. Prints only half a page, lettering fuzzy, street
outlines next to invisible.

Does anyone know a better map service that prints _legible_ maps without
nonsensical fluff and bonbon colors around them?

I just use google maps.
what bits don't you want?

 

[miso]

I'll second using the smartphone. However, coverage is always an issue.
I ran into a couple trying to use an Iphone in the backcountry,
perplexed that it stopped working. Hey, it's on AT&T people. Worse yet,
it is an iphone.

Those Garmin Nuvi with life time maps are fine. Or a Tom Tom. What you
don't want to do is have to buy maps every few years. The database price
is obscene.

 

[Don Y]

Hi Joerg,

With Google and Mapquest printing out B/W maps for biz trips has become
almost useless. Prints only half a page, lettering fuzzy, street
outlines next to invisible.

Does anyone know a better map service that prints _legible_ maps without
nonsensical fluff and bonbon colors around them?

Print to a graphic file format and convert to B&W *there* -- instead of
letting MS and your printer decide how to map colors, scale (or NOT
scale! ) the image, etc.

I like SnagIt! as a screen capture/"printer" utility.

When I'm looking for directions, I use a GPS *as* a virtual map. Some
don't scroll properly, though. Works regardless of "network" access,
etc. And, lets me listen to my MP3's, etc.

*Very* useful in that I can just type in a destination and have it
find it for me (I don't use the navigation features, though. Too
annoying).

And, reasonably affordable (I think I now have 6? of them that I have
bought or inherited along the way). Don't trust the maps, though.
*All* of them think there is a back way out of our subdivision. There
isn't! :-/ (IIRC, google suffers from the same delusion)

OTOH, when I have to prepare a route for someone else to follow, I
resort to google maps (though I often have to coerce it to show the
route *I* want to take, not the route that it *thinks* I should take).
Then, print to a "capture" device before ultimately routing to a
PDF (that I can mail to someone).

 

[[email protected]]

I'll second using the smartphone. However, coverage is always an issue.
I ran into a couple trying to use an Iphone in the backcountry,
perplexed that it stopped working. Hey, it's on AT&T people. Worse yet,
it is an iphone.

I use Verizon for good reason. A cell phone isn't much use if it can't find a
tower. I refuse to pay the iTax, too.

Those Garmin Nuvi with life time maps are fine. Or a Tom Tom. What you
don't want to do is have to buy maps every few years. The database price
is obscene.

Delorme runs about $50/yr, but isn't worth $.50. Updates aren't.

 

[Rich Webb]

But, contrary to their claims, it's *way* out of date. It's useless for
subdivisions that have gone in over the last five to seven years. I give it
two thumbs down.

Probably varies by region; around here it's pretty up to date. Have you
provided them any feedback on the new or changed streets?

Delorme has a BlueTooth attached GPS. Two thumbs down on it, too. OTOH, my
smart phone is fantastic. I bought SWMBO (and can't read maps) a GPS a few
years ago. It's about to be replaced by her cell phone and a windshield mount.

I long ago moved from the original serial-port model to the newer (at
the time) USB-connected model. Nowadays it's the smartphone and a vent
mount, though.

However, there isn't one ideal, complete solution. I love the Waze
smartphone app; the real-time, cooperative traffic notification is
great. OTOH, the stand-alone Garmin GPS doesn't need cell connectivity
and has handy features like the "intersection view." And, the Delorme
gives one a much larger screen and more options. The days of the "laptop
in the seat" have passed but Street Atlas would probably rock on a
tablet PC with the right dashboard holder.

 

[[email protected]]

Probably varies by region; around here it's pretty up to date. Have you
provided them any feedback on the new or changed streets?

It's not by region. I've found these problems all over the East (South and
North). Right now I'm looking to buy a house in Georgia. Something like
10-15% of them have addresses that Delorme can't find. I haven't found one
yet that GoogleEarth or my Cell phone (which uses Google's services) can't
locate. No, I haven't contacted them, and I won't be sending them any more of
my money, either. It's not just one street they're missing, it's everything
newer than about 2006. My current street isn't even in the 2011 edition and
the first house in the subdivision was built in 2005.

I long ago moved from the original serial-port model to the newer (at
the time) USB-connected model. Nowadays it's the smartphone and a vent
mount, though.

We both just got smart phones. At work they have the Internet locked down so
tight it's useless. I (usually) get great 4G reception at my desk, so...

However, there isn't one ideal, complete solution. I love the Waze
smartphone app; the real-time, cooperative traffic notification is
great. OTOH, the stand-alone Garmin GPS doesn't need cell connectivity
and has handy features like the "intersection view." And, the Delorme
gives one a much larger screen and more options. The days of the "laptop
in the seat" have passed but Street Atlas would probably rock on a
tablet PC with the right dashboard holder.

Just get a built-in GPS unit. 8" displays aren't uncommon and they'll be
getting bigger. Fast.

I thought about buying a tablet but I'm not so sold on Android. I have it on
my smart phone so the only thing a tablet gives me is a larger screen and a
kludge for connectivity (through my cell phone) or more $$ going out each
month. X86 tablets are way too expensive, so I'm holding on that one.

 

[Joerg]

Well, you could always update your "phone only" phone to a smartphone --
they pretty much all have GPS these days. (Although unfortunately most
mapping programs for smartphones -- include the quite good and free
Google maps/nav -- rely on data connections, which you'd probably not
want to pay for. Ironically, with somewhat older smartphones, there
were various packages with the maps on SD cards or whatever, since data
plans weren't as common and the transfer rate was slower...)

That would bump my cell costs by about 20dB, from $5 to around $50/mo,
and probably require being tethered to a contract. Rather interesting
was when a bigshot corporate guy with his expensive phone couldn't get a
connection, zero bars, and he had to use my cheapo phone which had
crystal-clear connection.

I suspect that you've very much in the minority of people who'd still
use the functionality, unfortunately. ...

Maybe I go back to maps and compass. Or celestial navigation

... I'd second Jim's suggestion to
use Microsoft Streets & Trips or Delorme Street Atlas USA (they just
released their 2012 edition last month). (I think Street Atlas USA will
print up to 13"x19" in the regular edition -- many years ago it would
happily print, e.g., E-sized plots, but apparently someone realized that
many businesses were making such plots for their own commercial
purposes, so they purposely restricted the next version to only be able
to print up to 13"x19" in the "regular consumer"-licensed version of the
software.)

According to Keith MS may be the better deal. Or maybe I should only
have clients in pristine backcountry areas that are easy to find with
map and compass

 

[Joerg]

I just use google maps.
what bits don't you want?

I want it to be like it used to be until about a couple years ago: Print
the map on the whole page, and most of all have street outlines visible.
There's just no contrast in those things anymore.

 

[Joerg]

Not cheap - but I think you would find it very difficult to beat this
setup:

1) Garmin Montana 650t (GPS, with topo & 5MP camera)
2) City Navigator North America, either on DVD or MicroSD chip
3) Vehicle mount, which includes power supply & audio amp/speaker for
turn-by-turn

Now, with this setup, you can do everything the Nuvi can (and a whole
lot more).
You can download gigabytes worth of Google Earth high resolution
imagery and use that as a layer on your GPS. The streets print over
top of this layer - highly visible!
It's easier to overlay GE layers with a $39 subscription via Birdseye,
but you can do it manually too if you don't mind a few hassles.
With the City Navigator data, you can get lat/lon, address, phone #,
etc.. for practically anywhere and "go to" them as a waypoint
(technically, a Point Of Interest). With turn-by-turn, of course.
You can even search for nearby Chinese Buffets if you like. Very
power search engine.

You can even download Darth Vader or Homer Simpson as your "voice", or
even teach it to use your own voice for the turn-by-turn, if you're so
inclined.

You can use the Montana without the vehicle mount, but it will just
beep instead of talking to you, unless you use headphones.

A $100 Nuvi might work just as well for you, but you only live once.
I've used plenty of GPS's over the years, and I can't think of a
single instance where the Garmin Montana wouldn't be able to do what I
needed.
I was just in Costa Rica for example, and after loading the Google
Earth overlays (and even foregoing the turn-by-turn data), it was
really helpful.
I might have sprung for the turn-by-turn but I was only in country for
a week.

All told, the Montana solution will set you back about $800.

Yikes! Ok, if I go into the wilderness expedition business I'll consider
it

But it will likely be the last time you will ever have to worry about
this problem.

That depends on where you have to go. You might have to buy it all over
again, along with four new hub caps and some other things that they took.

 

[Joerg]

I dropped deLorme for Microsoft Streets because deLorme was years
behind on new construction.

Years? That's nothing. Talking about decades: UPS could said a package
was "undeliverable". I called. "Sir, your street address doesn't exists
and the driver used staellite-based navigation" ... "The street was
built in the late 60's and your driver can get a map at the gas station
near the Highway" ... "Oh! We'll be there tomorrow".

Next time I venture out I will pack only the dash stand for my GPS in
my checked luggage, and squeeze the GPS into my laptop case.

That snow storm in Rochester at midnight with only paper maps (*) was
a scary event. Fortunately the car rental guy suggested 4WD at
+$20/day, and I said, "No, too much". He then said +$5 and I said,
"Sold" ;-)

Had a similar experience in WA state where the only vehicle left was a
Mitsubishi Montero, similar to the one I have now. Another time they
gave me an extra air filter and asked whether I was familiar with that
kind of maintenance work. Mount St.Helens had decided to release lots of

(*) Fortunately my SOP is a stack of maps, overview, then zooms of all
major junctions, then further zoom at hotel location.

I normally print everything out. Beat the GPS of an engineer when we
toured IC design places. Sometimes my "map on dead tree" was "faster".
But now those map service on the web are screwed up.

 

[Joerg]

Done from "Streets", black & white...

Newsgroups: alt.binaries.schematics.electronic
Subject: Re: Map to Joerg's Neighborhood - JoergsNeighborhood.pdf -
JoergsNeighborhood_MS.pdf
Date: Sat, 25 Feb 2012 10:15:13 -0700
Message-ID: <[email protected]>

Those links do not work with Thunderbird, it only opens an email window.

 

[Joerg]

Are we ever going to drag you into the 21st Century ? Thunderbird
is not a fit NEWS reader.

It is actually a very nice email software. Ok, maybe not perfect for
newsgroups but I like things integrated.

Go to a.b.s.e to view.

Can't, my news server carries no binaries. I never bothered to get a
service with binaries because >>95% of Usenet users have no access, so
there is no point anymore sharing schematic ideas that way.

 

[Nico Coesel]

Hello Folks,

With Google and Mapquest printing out B/W maps for biz trips has become
almost useless. Prints only half a page, lettering fuzzy, street
outlines next to invisible.

Does anyone know a better map service that prints _legible_ maps without
nonsensical fluff and bonbon colors around them?

I use Firefox and just hit the print button in the browser. I use to
grab the screen and print using paint but that's too cumbersome.

 

[Joerg]

From what orifice did you pull that number from ?

So how many participants on s.e.d. are left on a.b.s.e.?

Care to start a poll? You'll be very surprised.

If you insist on being cheap, stop whining and go sit in the corner
and suck your thumb.

I pay $8/mo for Giganews. Always there. Always works. Unlike the
ISP "provided" news.

I am also using a 3rd party since my ISP dumped first binaries, then all
of Usenet.

 

[Joerg]

I use Firefox and just hit the print button in the browser. I use to
grab the screen and print using paint but that's too cumbersome.

I tried the same because the print routine in Google Maps makes a bad
print even worse. Problem: I only have B/W printers and on both the
street lines are not visible. Because Google changed that in a
nonsensical way, to a border between very light gray and white.

In the good old days when Google Maps still worked it printed nice
contrasty lines on the sides of each street.