Free digital maps

OK I know I'm splitting hairs but can you not borrow maps
from a library. I seem to remember seeing a rack of OS maps
last time I was in my local library.

Mike Mason

"Paul Saunders" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Paul said:

I totally agree with your comments, that is why I do not
believe I am actually doing anything wrong unlike people
who scan the maps they purchase, now that is clearly an
infringement of copyright.

Now that seems to be the wrong way around to me. To scan a
map you have to buy it first, yet if you download a map it
costs you nothing. Yet you seem to be saying that those
who spend money on maps to scan them are breaking the law
but those who download them for nothing aren't?

Irrespective of the actual copyright rules, scanning your
own maps for your own use seems harmless, especially since
you've actually paid for them! it's not like you're going
to be able to make prints and sell them.

Paul
--
wilderness-wales.co.ukwilderness-wales.co.ukOpen ↗
wildwales.fsnet.co.ukwildwales.fsnet.co.ukOpen ↗
photosig.comuserphotosOpen ↗

Not sure about that set of definitions, but the end result
is the same and that is getting a map that is suitable for
use with a package on a computer (at least it is for me).

And just so you know I do get somewhat p----d -f- with the
attitude of the OS. I tend to agree that if you've bought a
map it's up to you to do with it what you want provided

1). it's for personal use
2). no money is made out of the use that it is put to.

Just an interesting aside, it's now possible to download
quite good elevation data from the States for free and
there's an awful lot of that. Why can't the OS be a little
more flexible. I appreciate that there are a business trying
to make a profit but they seem to be trying to make a very
large profit.

Mike Mason

"theo" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Mike Mason" <[email hidden]> schreef in
bericht news:7Vlac.276$Aa6.2429168@news-
text.cableinet.net...

Quoted message said:

Please explain the difference between scanning a map and
downloading a

map.

Quoted message said:

Seems to me one and the same thing, just a different way
of achieving

the

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

same end.

Downloading a map is like buying a newspaper, scanning a
map is like

reading

Quoted message said:

a newspaper and printing a map is like duplicating a
newspaper. ( is it ?

,

Quoted message said:

:-)

Theo

OK I give up. Not sure that's free though (my time) and
it's not that easy to stitch stuff together but I take
your point.

On the other hand as I tend to use the map in the hills the
expense is not direct.

Mike Mason

"Paul Saunders" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Mike Mason said:

Please explain the difference between scanning a map and
downloading a map.

One is expensive and difficult, the other is free
and easy.

Paul
--
wilderness-wales.co.ukwilderness-wales.co.ukOpen ↗
wildwales.fsnet.co.ukwildwales.fsnet.co.ukOpen ↗
photosig.comuserphotosOpen ↗

Mike Mason said:

OK I give up. Not sure that's free though (my time)

Well it doesn't cost money. Scanning maps takes time too.

Quoted message said:

and it's not that easy to stitch stuff together but I take
your point.

Well it is easy if you use a screengrabber that can grab the
same area over and over so you only have to define the area
once, and it is easy to stitch them all together if you use
a grid and "snap" to it. It is very time consuming though,
easy but time consuming.

Whereas scanning maps is an absolute swine of a job, firstly
when trying to keep the maps perfectly flat, secondly when
trying to straighten them out and stitch them together and
thirdly when trying to calibrate them. Almost impossible to
get a perfect result, unless you only scan a very small
area, i.e. a single A4 scan from a good condition map. It's
so much hassle I rarely ever bother.

Paul
--
wilderness-wales.co.ukwilderness-wales.co.ukOpen ↗
wildwales.fsnet.co.ukwildwales.fsnet.co.ukOpen ↗
photosig.comuserphotosOpen ↗

Quoted message said:

Two Pauls, tricky. To Paul S, do you think it would be
unethical to mention the Z=4 hack to the other Paul? <g>

Sorry! Not so tricky now I've updated my detail on my posts

Z=4 good tip thanks. Not that I will be using it ;-)

"Nick Hopton" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

In a recent message <[email hidden]>,
Paul Saunders <[email hidden]> wrote.

[...]

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I only posted because I though it would be both legal
and useful to some members of this group

As you may or may not have realised, you're not the first
person to have suggested this, so the idea isn't new, but
thanks anyway for your post, we know it was well-
intentioned.

[...]

Two Pauls, tricky. To Paul S, do you think it would be
unethical to mention the Z=4 hack to the other Paul? <g>

Regards, Nick.

--
Nick Hopton and Anne Hopton Caversham, Reading, England
<[email hidden]

I confess ! I download digital maps from the internet and
stitch them together. I print them and cut them to fit in
the mappocket of my goretex. (12,5x20cm) I also laminate
them. I hate it when my papermaps get unreadable in wind and
rain after folding just a few times.

Theo

Wouldn't it be nice if you could buy the digitized explorer
maps from the OS for £6.99 for 1600 km2 i.e. the same price
as the paper version from WHSmiths.

We don't want software because we want to make our own
choice which we use and we're not fussed about height data
because the freely available SRTM is perfect (and better in
some cases e.g. Carsington Water). So why do we need to pay
£80 for it, surely the distribution costs of digital data
are negligable compared with paper maps.

If only the OS would wake up to this, nobody would bother
manually stitching maps as it wouldn't be worth the effort.

"Paul Saunders" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Nick Hopton said:

Two Pauls, tricky. To Paul S, do you think it would be
unethical to mention the Z=4 hack to the other Paul? <g>

May be a bit late now, but hey other Paul, have you tried
changing Z=3 to Z=4? Works best if you change your monitor
to a higher res like 1280 x 1024. Saves a lot of time.

Paul
--
wilderness-wales.co.ukwilderness-wales.co.ukOpen ↗
wildwales.fsnet.co.ukwildwales.fsnet.co.ukOpen ↗
photosig.comuserphotosOpen ↗

What screengrabber are you suggesting

Mike Mason

"Paul Saunders" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Mike Mason said:

OK I give up. Not sure that's free though (my time)

Well it doesn't cost money. Scanning maps takes time too.

Quoted message said:

and it's not that easy to stitch stuff together but I
take your point.

Well it is easy if you use a screengrabber that can grab
the same area over and over so you only have to define the
area once, and it is easy to stitch them all together if
you use a grid and "snap" to it. It is very time consuming
though, easy but time consuming.

Whereas scanning maps is an absolute swine of a job,
firstly when trying to keep the maps perfectly flat,
secondly when trying to straighten them out and stitch
them together and thirdly when trying to calibrate them.
Almost impossible to get a perfect result, unless you only
scan a very small area, i.e. a single A4 scan from a good
condition map. It's so much hassle I rarely ever bother.

Paul
--
wilderness-wales.co.ukwilderness-wales.co.ukOpen ↗
wildwales.fsnet.co.ukwildwales.fsnet.co.ukOpen ↗
photosig.comuserphotosOpen ↗

Mike Mason said:

What screengrabber are you suggesting

Hypersnap. 5star-shareware.comScreenOpen ↗
Capture/hypersnap.html

I used to use a much older version which I believe they gave
a free licence for, but I don't think they're offering that
anymore unfortunately. hyperionics.comhyperionics.comOpen ↗

Paul
--
wilderness-wales.co.ukwilderness-wales.co.ukOpen ↗
wildwales.fsnet.co.ukwildwales.fsnet.co.ukOpen ↗
photosig.comuserphotosOpen ↗

Thanks Paul

Mike

"Paul Saunders" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Mike Mason said:

What screengrabber are you suggesting

Hypersnap. 5star-shareware.comScreenOpen ↗
Capture/hypersnap.html

I used to use a much older version which I believe they
gave a free licence for, but I don't think they're
offering that anymore unfortunately.
hyperionics.comhyperionics.comOpen ↗

Paul
--
wilderness-wales.co.ukwilderness-wales.co.ukOpen ↗
wildwales.fsnet.co.ukwildwales.fsnet.co.ukOpen ↗
photosig.comuserphotosOpen ↗

Paul Saunders said:

Mike Mason said:

What screengrabber are you suggesting

Hypersnap. 5star-shareware.comScreenOpen ↗
Capture/hypersnap.html

I used to use a much older version which I believe they
gave a free licence for, but I don't think they're offering
that anymore unfortunately.

MWSnap is very good and is freeware:

mirekw.commwsnap.htmlOpen ↗

SteveO

NE Climbers & walkers chat forum;
thenmc.org.ukindex.phpOpen ↗

NMC website: thenmc.org.ukthenmc.org.ukOpen ↗

[email hidden] said...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Two Pauls, tricky. To Paul S, do you think it would be
unethical to mention the Z=4 hack to the other Paul? <g>

Sorry! Not so tricky now I've updated my detail on
my posts

Z=4 good tip thanks. Not that I will be using it ;-)

It's a very good tip. Hopefully someone will be along in a
minute to explain it to this thicky here who doesn't quite
understand what's being talked about... ;-)
--
Fran If you need my email address please ask.

Fran said:

[email hidden] said...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Two Pauls, tricky. To Paul S, do you think it would
be unethical to mention the Z=4 hack to the other
Paul? <g>

Sorry! Not so tricky now I've updated my detail on
my posts

Z=4 good tip thanks. Not that I will be using it ;-)

It's a very good tip. Hopefully someone will be along in a
minute to explain it to this thicky here who doesn't quite
understand what's being talked about... ;-)

If you really don't understand, streetmap's UK maps come in
tiles. The default is 3x3 but you can get 5x5 by changing
the zoom tag "&z=n" to "&z=n+1" in the URL. Similarly you
can jump west or east a certain number of km by adding to or
subtracting from the 3 in the "x=123456" tag. For north and
south you change it in the "y=123456."

I have just bunged x=377134&y=1000000&z=4 etc. in and got
three rows of blank sea and two rows of image not available.
That made me look for my OS index to see if there is
anything beyond y=999999. There is, the Shetland Islands
extend as far north as y=1220000, but the GB mainland is
only approximately y=977000.
--
Phil Cook looking north over the park to the
"Westminster Gasworks"