Multiplans GPS - use the best maps into your iPhone or iPod Touch english français

Topographic maps

Here are links to good quality topographic maps that can be viewed online (and often downloaded).

Important note: page Maps viewers allows to enlarge the viewing zone of several mapping web sites, and also to generate automatically a calibration file for the map.

Worldwide

The following sites provide maps, with satellite imagery, relief contours and street maps, for the whole world: The above sites all use the same spherical Mercator projection for the maps (as can be checked by superimposing maps with transparency using Sautter.com). Some country-specific maps sites also use the same projection system, like myTopo.com.
Maps from these sites can be imported into Multiplans, see importing a map in spherical Mercator projection.

Soviet topographic maps:

United States

Maps of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), which cover the whole territory of the United States at scale 1:24 k, are free and can be downloaded from several sites. See also: Examples: Kings canyon National Park (referenced USGS map, scale 1:24k, size: 53 Mo)

Canada

Australia

Sample map: Fraser_Island_sample.zip

New Zealand

Sample map: map Hamilton (BD33) can be georeferenced with this ref.txt file.

Norway

Finland

Italy

Sample map: Bardi region (at scale 1:25k)

Germany

United Kingdom

See page Import a map for an example on importing a topographic map of the Ordnance Survey into Multiplans.
Sample map: England_SouthEast.zip

France

Switzerland

Swiss Map 25 (fee): all swiss maps at a scale 1:25 k on 8 DVD discs.
Allows exportation, but exported map area is limited to size 10 km x 6.25 km (4000x2500 pixels).

Example: Sarnersee.zip (see page Map viewers to generate similar maps).

Luxembourg

Spain

Portugal

Austria

Czech Republic

Poland

Other countries

If you know of web sites (or programs) that contain topographic maps of good quality for a country or region, please send us a link so we can complete this list!
If you imported maps of a country not listed here, please drop us a line about it.

See also

Peter Robins' site contains links to many map viewers.
I thank Toby Hawkes, Jonas Ewe, Christer Tonning and John Thorn for pointing out some links to me.

Green checks marks () indicate that georeferenced maps of that country have already been successfully imported into Multiplans.

Ways to assemble quickly large maps

The following methods allow to create easily large maps by assembling automatically screen captures, on both Mac and Windows computers.

Important remark: when using any of the following methods, be sure to respect the end user licence and copyright of the map.

Method 1: Extension Awesome Screenshot (windows,MacOS,linux)

A convenient way to take a screenshot of a map is to use extension Awesome screenshot in browser Google Chrome. With this extension, one can take a screenshot of the content of a page of arbitrary dimensions (Awesome screenshot scrolls the page and assembles the screenshots automatically):

Awesome screenshot is especially useful in association with page Map viewers, where one can open map viewers of arbitrary dimensions. Awesome screenshot allows to crop the image before saving it. This is useful to remove unwanted white margins, if needed.
Awesome screenshot might crash occasionnaly. After a crash, select "Windows->Extensions" in Chrome and re-activate Awesome Screenshot. This extension seems to work best when the window size is small (irrespective of the map viewer size).

Method 2: SnapToMap (windows program)

Program SnapToMap automates the assembly of screen captures to create large maps. This program, which is compatible with many map websites, is quite easy to use.

Download: SnapToMap (see also the link given in this discussion (in french) on forum gpspassion)
How to use SnapToMap:
  1. Fill-in box (1) with any name for the map
  2. Fill-in box (2) with the name of the website serving the map (See menu Fichier->Charger STM... for some adresses of websites). Click on button [=>] to open a web browser (Firefox) on that address.
  3. Fill-in box (3) by clicking on button [L] and then on the name of the map window in Firefox.
  4. Click on button [GR] to define (with the mouse) the region of the window that should be captured (4).
  5. Choose the number of screen capture to assemble (for example a grid of 5 x 8 screen captures)
  6. Click on button "Démarrer" (=Start)
For some websites, SnapToMap can also write a calibration file in the OziExplorer .MAP file format (see help of SnapToMap for more explanations).

Other program: MapMaker
Program MapMaker is similar to SnapToMap. It works best in association with Internet Explorer.

Method 3: large screen shots (method working on MacOS)

Note: This method works only on "old" Macs equipped with MacOS 10.4 (Tiger) or MacOS 10.5 (Leopard). It does not work on MacOS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) or later.

On MacOS, keystroke commande+majuscule+4, followed by "space bar" brings up the camera mode. This mode allows to take screenshots of the content of a window, even when it is located partially offscreen. By resizing the window beyond the physical bounds of the screen (both horizontally and vertically) one can often copy a large area in a single shot, avoiding the tedious job of assembling several screenshots. With this method, we can make for example a screen capture of a map of size of 10000x10000 pixels in a single shot!

Viewing a map of size 4000 x 4000 pixels using FullScreenBrowser (MacOS 10.5 in Exposé mode).

In Safari, one can enlarge the window beyond the physical size of the screen horizontally, but not vertically. To avoid this problem, one can use program FullScreenBrowser. FullScreenBrowser is a very basic program, with a minimalistic user interface. To use it: