Mourning the End of Paper Maps
theguardian.com
Mourning the End of Paper Maps
1–10 of 76 posts
Re: Mourning the End of Paper Maps
#2There's a beautiful map store in London that I visited. If I recall, everything in there are contemporary "originals" -- meaning printed in that year, no re-printing. So a 1973 map of the Underground was from 1973. They also had very old, beautiful maps. I wanted them all!
After 20 minutes, I began to realize my wife was casually leafing through dozens of poster-size maps with £30,000 price stickers on them. My jaw nearly dropped. Her hands held "art" that they valued at close to £500,000++. I also realized I couldn't afford the map I wanted and left empty-handed
Re: Mourning the End of Paper Maps
#3There's a beautiful map store in London that I visited. If I recall, everything in there are contemporary "originals" -- meaning printed in that year, no re-printing. So a 1973 map of the Underground was from 1973. They also had very old, beautiful maps. I wanted them all! After 20 minutes, I began to realize my wife was casually leafing through dozens of poster-size maps with £30,000 price stickers on them. My jaw n…
You can also visit the National Library of Scotland Map Room in Edinburgh - they have a mindboggling 1.5 million sheet maps. https://www.nls.uk/collections/maps
While they don't sell originals, they do reproductions on demand for a lot less than 500k. I was just looking at a 1934 sheet for my wall, £27. Tho mainly I go to their site to jump back and forth in time, they have a great georeferenced map browser that lets you see how places have changed.
Re: Mourning the End of Paper Maps
#4I actually print and use paper maps a lot, specifically topographic maps. We do a decent amount of backcountry riding, and while not completely accurate, the USFS and USGS maps have various trails marked on them that are useful.
USGS publishes nicely formatted quadrangle-sized PDFs when smaller areas are enough, and CalTopo provides custom PDF generation when it’s more useful to specify a range. These I print at home on a 24” Epson 7800 and some paper I really like for the purpose (iGage Weatherproof Paper).
Re: Mourning the End of Paper Maps
#5I actually print and use paper maps a lot, specifically topographic maps. We do a decent amount of backcountry riding, and while not completely accurate, the USFS and USGS maps have various trails marked on them that are useful. USGS publishes nicely formatted quadrangle-sized PDFs when smaller areas are enough, and CalTopo provides custom PDF generation when it’s more useful to specify a range. These I print at home…
Indeed, paper maps are alive and well in the field of hiking/camping. It is a terrible experience trying to navigate even on the biggest of phone screens. Even the stuff one can print at home is, maybe, on an A3 sheet of paper, hopefully in colour. A vast improvement over the phone, and still not unwieldy. But to me, nothing compares to those huge mapsheets that fold accordion style. You can take in SO much more of your terrain and locate yourself so much better in your surroundings.
One of my favourite things to do while out hiking is to sit with a compass and a map and try to identify peaks and glaciers. I could do it for hours.
ETA: Everything I've heard about CalTopo makes it sound like God's gift to us.
Re: Mourning the End of Paper Maps
#6I actually print and use paper maps a lot, specifically topographic maps. We do a decent amount of backcountry riding, and while not completely accurate, the USFS and USGS maps have various trails marked on them that are useful. USGS publishes nicely formatted quadrangle-sized PDFs when smaller areas are enough, and CalTopo provides custom PDF generation when it’s more useful to specify a range. These I print at home…
In the Scottish hills I carry an iPhone with OS mapping app with a backup external battery pack, and usually a 'proper' OS paper map and a backup printout of my route overlaid on an OS map. The idea that paper maps were obsolete is news to me!
More than once I've had to give people my backup paper map copy because they had no idea where they were, usually as their phone has run out of charge!
Re: Mourning the End of Paper Maps
#7Paper charts are still alive and well in sailing
Re: Mourning the End of Paper Maps
#8There is no way that digital maps are anywhere near as practical, let alone more practical, yet.
Digital maps:
* rely on precious battery charge and weight
* aren't very robust
* are extremely hard to use in the dark or with night vision
* can't be cut and folded into something small and light enough to hold in a hand
* when portable aren't large enough for displaying on a table or wall for people to gather around
Re: Mourning the End of Paper Maps
#9There is no way that digital maps are anywhere near as practical, let alone more practical, yet. Digital maps: * rely on precious battery charge and weight * aren't very robust * are extremely hard to use in the dark or with night vision * can't be cut and folded into something small and light enough to hold in a hand * when portable aren't large enough for displaying on a table or wall for people to gather around
I was with you until the 'extremely hard to use in the dark or with night vision' because that is just about the only time they work much better than paper ones.
But maps of all sorts are a dying breed, the bulk of the uses for maps were to find directions and turn-by-turn voice navigation has made the map component pretty much optional.
Re: Mourning the End of Paper Maps
#10I actually print and use paper maps a lot, specifically topographic maps. We do a decent amount of backcountry riding, and while not completely accurate, the USFS and USGS maps have various trails marked on them that are useful. USGS publishes nicely formatted quadrangle-sized PDFs when smaller areas are enough, and CalTopo provides custom PDF generation when it’s more useful to specify a range. These I print at home…
In the Scottish hills I carry an iPhone with OS mapping app with a backup external battery pack, and usually a 'proper' OS paper map and a backup printout of my route overlaid on an OS map. The idea that paper maps were obsolete is news to me! More than once I've had to give people my backup paper map copy because they had no idea where they were, usually as their phone has run out of charge!
The Ordinance Survey digital maps are great. But, yeah, I carry an external battery pack, often even a spare smartphone, and a paper map. The paper is mostly just a backup but I don't want to be in a situation hiking where a dead phone puts me in a bad position.