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Free TOPO Maps!

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Sun Aug 21, 2016 10:39 pm

Free TOPO Maps!

http://petapixel.com/2016/08/06/nat-geo-launches-free-website-printing-detailed-topographical-maps/
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Mon Aug 22, 2016 3:22 am

Re: Free TOPO Maps!

Not enough time to review the whole link - Hope they have the old 7-1/2 degree versions or ability to enlarge small areas - That would be nice. Chris C
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Mon Aug 22, 2016 6:29 am

Re: Free TOPO Maps!

wannabe wrote:Not enough time to review the whole link - Hope they have the old 7-1/2 degree versions or ability to enlarge small areas - That would be nice. Chris C


They're 7.5 minute quads broke down into 4 quarters that each print on 8.5 X 11 inch printer paper. It prints out at 2 inches to the mile scale.

I love it.
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Mon Aug 22, 2016 9:17 am

Re: Free TOPO Maps!

Oh, and you can save the PDF file of a quad and put it in your smart phone and zoom in and out. My wife just now showed me that.
I still prefer paper maps.
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Mon Aug 22, 2016 11:01 am

Re: Free TOPO Maps!

Seems to me the USGS stopped either the 7.5 or the 15 min maps some time ago JUST AFTER I gave away a life time collection from the early 1950s on. /can not remember which one.

It was a surprise since I live just a couple miles away from the Menlo Park location.
Used to spend hours in there.
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Mon Aug 22, 2016 12:12 pm

Re: Free TOPO Maps!

wannabe wrote:Not enough time to review the whole link - Hope they have the old 7-1/2 degree versions or ability to enlarge small areas - That would be nice. Chris C


Seems like many of your posts these days are you stating you don't have time to read the whole article, or your eyes are too old or something... Come on, why even comment if you can't read the actual article?

The original link George posted is just the "cool photography stuff" website Petapixel calling interest to this National Geographic offer of free quads within their normal map store:

natgeomaps.com wrote:National Geographic has built an easy to use web interface that allows anyone to quickly find any quad in the country for downloading and printing. Each quad has been pre-processed to print on a standard home, letter size printer. These are the same quads that were printed by USGS for decades on giant bus-sized pressed but are now available in multi-page PDFs that can be printed just about anywhere. They are pre-packaged using the standard 7.5 minute, 1:24,000 base but with some twists:

* Page 1 is an overview map showing the Quad in context
* Pages 2 through 5 are the standard USGS Quads cut in quarters to fit on standard printers
* Hillshading has been added to each page of the PDF to help visualize the topography

*Please note: 0.5% of the quads have not been processed yet. These quads will appear as originally published by USGS.


That's pretty neat I guess. I really like it when they make easily printable PDFs, as I'm not fully captivated by the electronic flight bag revolution yet. I like rag maps on my lap.

Another good resource is the free Earthpoint Google Earth USGS quad overlays: http://www.earthpoint.us/TopoMap.aspx. You have to zoom in to a certain level and they refresh with the quads. It's really neat.
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Mon Aug 22, 2016 4:05 pm

Re: Free TOPO Maps!

Bookmarked, thanks!
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Tue Aug 23, 2016 8:51 am

Re: Free TOPO Maps!

OK map geeks, this is my favorite.

WARNING: this one is a dangerous time sponge.

http://historicalmaps.arcgis.com/usgs/

USGS maps of all scales. Dates back to 1880s in some locations. Historical maps can be overlayed on current maps and transparency adjusted so you can see both. VERY cool. Be careful. I've seen whole evenings disappear staring at this thing...

cheers,

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