Digital Mapping Techniques '99 -- Workshop Proceedings
U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 99-386

1. Mapublisher Avenza
2. Ms Publisher Download
3. Mapublisher Amped

Avenza's MAPublisher

MAPublisher允许您以最有效和准确的方式生成最佳质量的地图。 MAPublisher通过允许您使用主要矢量图形应用程序Adobe Illustrator和Macromedia FreeHand的强大而庞大的设计工具来实现这一目的，以便从地理信息系统（GIS）地图数据生成地图。. Brief Overview of Avenza MAPublisher for Adobe Illustrator for Mac OS X Avenza MAPublisher for Adobe Illustrator is an imposing graphic plugins which can be used for designing as well as editing the detailed and complete maps by using powerful Geographic Information Systems GIS. MAPublisher has been around for over 20 years and is used in private and public companies, government organizations and educational institutions around the world. Not provided by vendor. Ideal number of Users: 1 - 499. Not provided by vendor. Rating: 4.6 / 5 (45) Read All Reviews: 4.6 / 5 (31) Read All Reviews: Ease of Use: 4 / 5. MAPublisher requires Adobe Illustrator to work. It’s not a standalone application. Make sure you install Adobe Illustrator prior to MAPublisher installation. You can download the free trial version from this link. Please note that MAPublisher is not free, you must purchase it if you want to use it for long period.

By Susan Muleme

Avenza Software, Inc.
3385 Harvester Road, Suite 205
Burlington, Ontario, Canada L7N 3N2
Telephone: (905) 639-3330
Fax: (905) 639-7057
e-mail: susan@avenza.com

ABSTRACT

Avenza Software Inc., the developers of MAPublisher, is a small company located in Burlington, Ontario. MAPublisher is a suite of Plug-Ins and Xtras for Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia FreeHand. MAPublisher adds GIS capabilities to these two graphics applications. It adds graphics capabilities that are unavailable with a typical GIS. MAPublisher is used by government agencies, educational institutions, and businesses worldwide to create publication quality mapping products from GIS data sources.

AVENZA

The founder of Avenza was hired by the graphics department of a major company to make maps. He quickly realized that he was spending hours completing work that was already available. Why scan and screen digitize endless sheets of paper maps when accurate and georeferenced vectors were readily available? Why spend hours adding database attributes to vectors when this data had already been collected? In 1995, along with a GIS programmer and two other partners, he realized the need for a better way of making maps. This realization led to the creation of Avenza and its main product, MAPublisher. Avenza is now a small but innovative company employing about 10 people. The staff includes an engineer, a web designer/system administrator, a cartographer and a core group of programmers. Avenza is located in Burlington, Ontario, on the outskirts of Toronto.

What is MAPublisher?

MAPublisher is a suite of Plug-Ins and Xtras for Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia FreeHand that bridges Geographic Information System (GIS) technology with high-end graphics software for high resolution printing and electronic publishing technology. Cartographic quality map production is now faster, easier, and better. Avenza understands that GIS graphic tasks are best performed in the right environment such as powerful illustration programs like Macromedia Freehand and Adobe Illustrator. MAPublisher takes you into this environment seamlessly and effortlessly with the right GIS data management tools to facilitate the map production process. Using this fast, intuitive system, your map can transcend the ordinary and become a work of art.

Why Use MAPublisher?
Graphics Functionality Unavailable With Your GIS

MAPublisher gives you the ability to perform GIS tasks in a graphics environment, and allows you to add graphic attributes unavailable with most GIS products on the market. With MAPublisher and Adobe Illustrator or Macromdia FreeHand, you have

* Powerful graphics tools for total control of cartographic visualization.

* Unlimited colour choices including 24 bit colour and the ability to print CMYK four-colour separations.

* The ability to attach text to paths to create natural flowing labels.

* Complete typeface, point size, leading, kerning, tracking and alignment control and the ability to embed text.

* Minimal pre-press and printing problems.

* Automated crop and trim mark creation.

* Trapping for compensation of misregistration.

* The ability to convert custom colours to process colours for printing.

* And all of the other features of your graphics program!

Mapublisher Avenza

What can I do with MAPublisher?

* Import the most widely used GIS data files (Generate, Shapefile, MID/MIF, DXF, DLG, SDTS).

* Export data Shapefiles, MID/MIF or PDFs.

* Create ìSmartî PDFs with queriable databases with pdfPLUS (another Avenza product).

* Import, merge, create and edit any database files.

* View a floating window of map attribute information.

* Assign, edit, analyze and query map attributes.

* Tile map files together in real world coordinates.

* Automate raster image registration of DRGs and other types of georeferenced raster image.

* Automate your legend creation and labeling.

* Change map projections with the fully customizable projection editor (has 119 projections and over 40 ellipsoids).

* Quickly identify geographic locations and display the map scale and anchors in a floating window.

Who Uses MAPublisher?

MAPublisher is used by professionals in a wide variety of fields including geology, engineering, forestry, municipal planning, mining and exploration, graphic design, advertising, real estate, law, defense, newspapers, and television media. Many municipal, provincial, state, federal, and international governments use this product to produce maps and graphics; evidence is provided in talks delivered at this meeting. MAPublisher is being used to teach cartographic concepts at educational institutions around the world. For example, the University of Waterloo uses MAPublisher to teach projections to its students; ITC in the Netherlands uses MAPublisher in combination with ILWIS to teach geomatics concepts from GIS to remote sensing imagery analysis.

CONTACTING AVENZA:

Please visit Avenzas website, http://www.avenza.com, for more information about MAPublisher. For examples of MAPublisher maps, check in the Products-Demos section of the web page. If you have any technical or sales questions about MAPublisher, or if you would like to book a training session, you can contact Avenza in a number of ways:

* Sales Department and Order Desk [sales@avenza.com, or tel. (800)884-2555, ex.50]

* General Information [info@avenza.com or tel. (905) 639-3330]

* Technical Support [support@avenza.com or tel. (905) 639 2329]

Return to Table of Contents This site is https://pubs.usgs.gov/openfile/of99-386/muleme.html Maintained by the Eastern Publications Group Web Team Last revised 11-2-99

Why?

The GNIS (Geographic Names Information System) is the authoritative* source of information for place names in the United States. It is a fantastic dataset and despite the fact that there seems to be no reasonable way to get errors fixed–namely grossly misplaced peaks and elevation values–it has proven to be a valuable resource for cartographers. All of the features in the GNIS dataset are point features even if they represent features that are distinctly linear.

One of the things that I love about the original USGS topo 1:24k maps and I lament about the new US Topo products is the lack of feature labels on bézier curves that are now printed as straight block labels instead. I know that there are funding issues, usability issues, etc., but nevertheless, I hate to see this art fade away. For smaller features this isn’t quite as much of an issue, but for larger features like mountain ranges, a single point label on a particular quad is poor at best and quite misleading in my opinion.

SO! What are we as enterprising cartographers to do to resurrect these great labels and use them for our modern cartographic work? Well, that’s what this project is all about.

The Project

This project aims to tap into the skills, time, and expertise of the cartographic community to build a rich, multi-scale dataset of these linear features. Together we can all work on a particular part of the country and then combine our efforts into a single dataset of linear feature labels. It carries an open source license and will be available in the public domain for all to use.

I’ve downloaded the GNIS point dataset and isolated the feature types that I think would benefit from being represented as a linear feature instead of a point feature. Mountain ranges are the obvious example, but other feature types including valleys, canyons, plains, and gulches are included as well. I’ve converted these selected point features into linear features and retained all of the attributes.

Help!

If you’ve made it this far, maybe you are the type of person that wants to contribute to the GNIS-Bézier project. Great! Let’s make this dataset together and make it free for everyone so we can all have better maps in our lives for years to come!

Step 1. Choose an Area

The first step to contributing to the project is to choose an area to work on. I’ve broken the country up into blocks that will allow for a ~360 square kilometer area to be worked on at a time. These constraints are based on the maximum artboard size that Adobe Illustrator supports when this area is displayed at ~1:50,000. Use the map below to identify an unclaimed block (click to enlarge). Any of the blocks below that are NOT filled with blue are unclaimed and up for grabs. Send me an email to jamierob @ gmail dot com to claim one. The Video below will help explain the data behind the project and choosing a piece of the country for you to work on.

Step 2. Download the data for your block

After you have your block, it will take me a little while to prep the documents for you. I have a semi-automated procedure that stitches together all of the original quad maps, de-collars and re-projects them, and then strips out a lot of the colors except for the relevant ones to placing the labels. The topo images and the GNIS-Bézier features are then put into an Adobe Illustrator document and ready to go. Alborosie discography download. Once that is done I’ll post the files to the github project page and you can either download it or check it out. Don’t let a lack of git knowledge keep you from pitching in! Here is the repository if you want to check out the work so far.

Step 3: Edit the features

Once you get the features from me, you’re ready to get your hands dirty and move some lines. You’ll need basic knowledge of Adobe Illustrator, file management, and an attention to detail. There are some custom path scripts that really help to refine the bézier curves. An extension for Adobe Illustrator called MAPublisher is also required, but if you don’t have one–that’s ok–you can get a 14-day trial from Avenza and hopefully that should be sufficient for you to complete your block. The video below explains the procedure for downloading and editing your block of data in Adobe Illustrator. The basic steps to remember are:

1. Edit the two nodes to make each line feature match the shape of the physical feature in question. Add new nodes as necessary but only if needed.
2. Attributes – When the line is finished, update the ‘workstatus’ attribute for the feature as follows:
   1. x – The edit is complete and no other work is needed. It falls completely within the block being edited.
   2. q – you have a question about the feature. Someone else should take a look at it.
   3. e – The feature goes off of the edge of the block you are editing. When this feature is merged into the nation-wide document, this will need to be edited/fixed.
   4. Delete – If you think that the feature is just too small or silly to warrant an actual linear feature label, just delete the feature.
3. Remember: These are very small illustrator files from a size perspective because they do not have embedded images or saved with PDF compatibility. If you try to save it with PDF compatibility checked or embed the images, it will probably choke.

Ms Publisher Download

Step 4: Submit your work back to the project

When you’re finished editing your block, either send the .ai file back to me or make a pull request and commit it via git. I’ll combine it into the full usa .ai document and we’ll slowly build up the dataset for the whole country. If/when all of the blocks are completed, we’ll have a single .ai document with bézier lines, with attributes for the whole country. We can assign map scale to features based on the line length and/or if the label text will fit on the line at a given scale. I haven’t quite sorted that part out yet. Finally, the dataset can then be exported out to other geodata formats so it can be used in other applications. The reason for starting in Illustrator with MAPublisher is to have the clean, bézier features first because when the features are exported (likely to shapefile), nodes will be added along the curves.

Thank you for reading and please consider working on a block if you’re interested! If you have any questions please post them below or send me an email.

Mapublisher Amped

_{*authoritative from a European colonization standpoint. The GNIS dataset contains place names from after Europeans arrived on Turtle Island and created names for these features. Many indigenous place names are not represented and some current place names are racist. I fully support efforts to rename these features to provide long overdue respect and recognition of the original names that were attached to these features.}