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Map publishing software
GIS Professionals face the daunting task of
compiling and maintaining huge amounts of data in order to create
digital map files. The problem often faced is that the existing
GIS applications cannot produce a map, acceptable for final output
and publication, either on paper or electronically. Maps, created
in a GIS often look pixelised and on paper contain various colours
and textures that do not match with what was initially present on
the computer screen. As well, problems with text are common. In
order to avoid such problems, several cartographic solutions are
available. Some of them are described below.
The Mercator Carto Editor (part of the Mercator
interactive) is excellently equipped to handle and edit
cartographic files. It can easily deal with muti-level
cartographic objects like lines and also enables polygons with an
unlimited number of points to be used. The unique masking
capabilities make map origination with Mercator much easier and
faster. The Map Style File contains the definitions and attributes
of all the objects that occur in the map series, or on altas: inks
and colours, line, area, point or text styles. The styles are used
to assign graphics to the information, imported from the GIS or
CAD system. The user can save the data either as graphics or in
the Mercator Cartographic Format, a graphics independent storage
method meaning that the user can combine the data with different
map styles files, so that different maps can be created for
different customers along with the same source material. Mercator
provides fast high quality output on any required medium. This
includes large format film, digital printing and digital output.
Rolta India Limited, in collaboration with
Intergraph Corporation, provides end-to-end solutions for various
cartographic applications. It not only offers tools that enable
one to generalise maps but also provides tools for feature-based
map composition and symbolisation for screen displays and colour
plots for Intergraph GIS users. Map Finisher provides
symbolisation and data re-organisation capabilities, so that
user-defined feature representations may be generated for
plotting. Map Finisher also provides the capability to input 3-D
vector files and raster images for raster/vector maps. MGE Map
Publisher software offers the digital equivalent of a traditional
map production photo lab. Map Publisher enables users to preview
finished maps prior to generating final films by providing
what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) screen displays and WYSIWYG
colour plots generated using a raster plotting device.
MAPublisher is a GIS cartographic suite of
plug-in filters for the Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia FreeHand
graphic applications. One of the most important features of
MAPublisher is that it will import into these high-end graphics
programmes common GIS files such as mid/mif, shape, dxf, dlg, stds
and gen with all the attribute database information intact. The
Map-to-Page projection feature mathematically converts the
Earth’s curved, three dimensional surface to flat map sheets;
the transformation feature converts the native co-ordinate system
to scaled map sheets; Column Mapping Tools lets you assign
attributes to newly added objects and modify existing attribute
columns through list, add and drop column features. Along with
this, MAPublisher offers other GIS tools such as Automated Legend
Tools, Auto-Labeling Tool, Merging or Linking to External
Databases, Automated Raster Image Registration Tool and many other
mapping tools.
ACE is a professional cartographic software package which is a
natural extension to all GIS, remote sensing and CAD systems. It is
designed to create, edit and print high quality output maps. Since
each feature on a digital map is built with vectors, vectors are the
prime input to ACE to create a map. However, working with raster is
also possible. Images are often large in size and can occupy a lot
of memory. ACE allows to temporarily unload raster files from maps
while editing other data, and then again reload them. This allows
memory to be freed, thereby speeding up the editing functions. ACE
has drawing and editing features that help in creating a map.
Features include all vector based information, such as points,
lines, polygons and text. It also allows interactive placement of
text using mouse with or without user specified angle. PCI Geomatics
software utilises GeoGateway technology to directly read and write
raster, vector and other information from an extensive list of
supported file formats. This offers the advantage of quick and
direct access to data, and eliminates the need to replicate files
since conversion is no longer necessary.
The Mercator Carto Editor (part of the Mercator
interactive) is excellently equipped to handle and edit
cartographic files. It can easily deal with muti-level
cartographic objects like lines and also enables polygons with an
unlimited number of points to be used. The unique masking
capabilities make map origination with Mercator much easier and
faster. The Map Style File contains the definitions and attributes
of all the objects that occur in the map series, or on altas: inks
and colours, line, area, point or text styles. The styles are used
to assign graphics to the information, imported from the GIS or
CAD system. The user can save the data either as graphics or in
the Mercator Cartographic Format, a graphics independent storage
method meaning that the user can combine the data with different
map styles files, so that different maps can be created for
different customers along with the same source material. Mercator
provides fast high quality output on any required medium. This
includes large format film, digital printing and digital output.
Rolta India Limited, in collaboration with
Intergraph Corporation, provides end-to-end solutions for various
cartographic applications. It not only offers tools that enable
one to generalise maps but also provides tools for feature-based
map composition and symbolisation for screen displays and colour
plots for Intergraph GIS users. Map Finisher provides
symbolisation and data re-organisation capabilities, so that
user-defined feature representations may be generated for
plotting. Map Finisher also provides the capability to input 3-D
vector files and raster images for raster/vector maps. MGE Map
Publisher software offers the digital equivalent of a traditional
map production photo lab. Map Publisher enables users to preview
finished maps prior to generating final films by providing
what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) screen displays and WYSIWYG
colour plots generated using a raster plotting device.
MAPublisher is a GIS cartographic suite of
plug-in filters for the Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia FreeHand
graphic applications. One of the most important features of
MAPublisher is that it will import into these high-end graphics
programmes common GIS files such as mid/mif, shape, dxf, dlg, stds
and gen with all the attribute database information intact. The
Map-to-Page projection feature mathematically converts the
Earth’s curved, three dimensional surface to flat map sheets;
the transformation feature converts the native co-ordinate system
to scaled map sheets; Column Mapping Tools lets you assign
attributes to newly added objects and modify existing attribute
columns through list, add and drop column features. Along with
this, MAPublisher offers other GIS tools such as Automated Legend
Tools, Auto-Labeling Tool, Merging or Linking to External
Databases, Automated Raster Image Registration Tool and many other
mapping tools.
ACE is a professional cartographic software package which is a
natural extension to all GIS, remote sensing and CAD systems. It is
designed to create, edit and print high quality output maps. Since
each feature on a digital map is built with vectors, vectors are the
prime input to ACE to create a map. However, working with raster is
also possible. Images are often large in size and can occupy a lot
of memory. ACE allows to temporarily unload raster files from maps
while editing other data, and then again reload them. This allows
memory to be freed, thereby speeding up the editing functions. ACE
has drawing and editing features that help in creating a map.
Features include all vector based information, such as points,
lines, polygons and text. It also allows interactive placement of
text using mouse with or without user specified angle. PCI Geomatics
software utilises GeoGateway technology to directly read and write
raster, vector and other information from an extensive list of
supported file formats. This offers the advantage of quick and
direct access to data, and eliminates the need to replicate files
since conversion is no longer necessary.