Make a Map Book Using Google Maps

The other day I was looking at the bookstore for a Street Guide for DuPage County, IL since my girlfriend is living there and needs a detailed street map.  Unfortunately, the only one that they had that was close was one for Cook County (like this one), which doesn't include any of DuPage County.  Being the computer savvy person I am, I decided I could just as easily make one using Google Maps and a couple other computer programs.

Note: this project makes use of Google Maps content and I believe I have given directions that still allow this project to fall under the umbrella of "fair use."  I'm no lawyer but assuming you don't go selling these I think this should be legal.

Step 1: Necessary Programs

I used the following programs to complete this task.  Some of these aren't open source programs, unfortunately, and may not be accessible for many so I have included an open source alternative if applicable.

- Firefox internet browser (needed to use an Addon)
- Adobe Photoshop (or the GIMP)
- PDFCreator
- Microsoft Word (or OpenOffice)

Optional:
- Microsoft Excel (OpenOffice has an alternative as well)

Comments

[fabiobcm]

Great job! Do you know if I can print the maps with the markers? I want to print a guide for bookstores...

Thanks.

[UOS]

Like it!

[Creativeman]

Awesome....however, way too much work for a damn map! Recently, I needed a map of Airizona...just went on line at my friends house, took a picture, or 2 or 3, and presto, I had my map...if I got stuck, all I had to do was review on the camera.

[static]

Most if not all States will send you a road map of their State for free. All it takes is looking up the web page for their tourism department, and making a request.

[frazeeg]

That's one way to do it, yes :-)

What if your camera breaks though? Or if the battery dies? Just saying...

[static]

A note on Google Map Buddy. Before downloading it I visited the software's web page Evidently Google doesn't like it it, claiming it violates Google's ToS. The software is still available for down load from several resources, so interested persons should get it while they still can. Although it isn't necessary, just looks to simply things.

[rajudasonline]

A lot of time could have been saved in the creation of Index page step if done in Word.

Insert the Index image in Word, set its text wrapping attribute to 'behind text'. Now Insert a table over this image with required number of rows and columns, adjust the table height and width from table properties menu to match with the image size and select 'distribute rows and columns evenly'. Put the numbers in each cell.

To easily align and move the image and the table, both can be put inside rectangle boxes and their shading and border set to none.

----------

Another crazy idea to create map pages quickly.

Insert the entire Map image (not cropped into pages) into MS-Excel, set the page size and margins as required, insert the scale image inside header/footer and align it as needed, print the whole file to pdf or directly to printer. Excel automatically slices the image into individual pages. Play with the print options before printing and use Print Preview option generously.

[reptilehead]

being a truck driver, i can COMPLETELY understand map books, however GPS is a wonderful thing as well, and i dont have to keep looking at it.
zoom out to find where i am, zoom in to get my next turn. the map book has been relegated to the duty of "having an idea of where im going" before i leave. in the 90's it was common for every truck to have at least ONE map book, now the company i work for has a few laying around for quick reference as we take off.
this is a GREAT idea for the "tech challenged" or as a backup when the GPS fails. (and they do, take a gps into the loop sometime) I trust you have a compass as well in the car somewhere to orientate the map? map reading is an art that seems to be slowly being forgotten.

[ElectroFrank]

The word you want is "orient". There's no "orientate" !
(Ok, Ok, I start attending Fusspots Anonymous next week.)

[gnach]

Dictionary Police Alert!
um, Orientate is English, not American. Google before you post. Try "define orientate British"

[rhkramer]

I don't like the word, it's a waste of syllables (compared to orient), but, Miriam (Merriam?? ;-) seems to think it's a word: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/orientate

[sarawelder]

unless you are English... but if you are american I forgive you as you don't speak real english.

[MadDogg710]

English doesn’t borrow words from other languages, English follows other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new grammar.

[ElectroFrank]

I am English English in England. Provoked by your responses, I just checked the Oxford online dictionary. I was horrified to find they say "-tate" is valid !

Please will someone write an instructable on
"How To Get Words You Don't Like Universally Banished From World English".

[sarawelder]

But.... I am also English English currently living in the USA... but I still speak English nevertheless.

Are you also uncomfortable with orientation? Do you prefer oriention.....? I grew up saying "orientate" and my mother was one great stickler for the correct grammar etc.
Don't worry , English will soon be unrecognizable to us old folk as it is daily mutilated in the US. Sorry to get so off track!

[frazeeg]

Enough of the American English/British English banter. Argue about it somewhere else.

[nerys]

I LOVE my GPS. but I never go somewhere "unknown" without a hard map with me even if its just a print of the destination from google maps.

always.

Don't need a compass. the point of maps (in this scenario) is to find streets. once you find 2 you can orient the map easily.

[frazeeg]

GPS is nice until it stops working and you're lost in the middle of nowhere. It's happened to me and it is NOT a good feeling. Too many people rely on technology instead of their own memory and reasoning.

And your comment about the Chicago Loop couldn't be more accurate. Good luck using a GPS in that rat's nest.

[reptilehead]

i might add, thankfully most cars have a built in compass, which helps out a ton.

btw... you can see my house from here! (sticks of dupage here too)

[slaitch]

Since when do most cars have built-in compasses? This is news to me.

[reptilehead]

i havent owned a car since 94 without one... so ... almost 20 years?

[frazeeg]

My parents haven't had a car with one since I've been born and that's been 23 years. It all depends on the options you get. And manufacturer.

[ewolf]

You could use OpenStreetMap instead of Google Maps. The CC-by-SA license for OSM not only allows you to make map books (or a cake) but also allows you sell them as long you attribute the source.

[rashoot]

Seems to only work in europe not america especially canada I would have love to have seen it work here

[frazeeg]

That you could. I'm more familiar with Google Maps so that's why I used it. I'll have to play around with OpenStreetMap some more.

Also, OpenStreetMap seems to be in need of updates in some places (the subdivision with my parents' house is missing, as one example) so that's something to keep in mind. Of course, any map is outdated as soon as it's published so I guess it's really a moot point.

[ewolf]

Um.. Yeah. OpenStreetMap needs some updates. Click edit and make them! That's sort of the idea behind it!

[kguest]

That's the great thing about OpenStreetMap (and http://maposmatic.org/ and other such services like openstreetbrowser.org which use that map data) - in that you can update that map data yourself.

All it takes is something with a gps (android phone/iphone anyone?) or http://walking-papers.org/ if you prefer to draw things on paper.

The estate where I'm living still - after 2-3 years isn't on google maps; within a week of me moving in it's been on openstreetmap and I have to say I've not had to give directions too often!

Seriously useful.
Seriously free!

[frazeeg]

Unfortunately, for those of us without a smartphone, editing a map the old fashioned way is still the way to do it. Which not too many people have the time for. It does look like an interesting project though. Definitely worth pursuing.

[rashoot]

You don't need screen grab! You can use the Prt Scn key on your keyboard and paste it into Word or any paint program like Paintbrush and print from there or edit it in a more advanced paint program

[rashoot]

I just realized that not everyone has a screen size like mine at 1980 x 1080 When I do a print screen I only need to do it once then I crop out the navigation junk and I end up with a very large single HD image.Maybe everyone else has to go through this every time. The best part about prt scn is that It can be done with any program anywhere and any time on your computer. Whether it is my desktop or sites that do not allow you to copy data.I bet you cant do that with Google poodle

[frazeeg]

Might I direct you to the first sentence of Step 3.

[SlimDan22]

Great instructable!

I would love to be able to make this map
http://www.thezoomablemap.com
but i don't have a gigantic printer =P

[mjh44]

Are you people loco? Just stop and ask somebody for directions if all else fails(camera, batteries etc.). Much cheaper.

[Kylie_C]

I can't tell you the number of times (too many to count) we've stopped for directions (or overheard someone else asking for directions) and the locals had no idea how to find whatever we were looking for, or had 2 or 3 people arguing for 5 minutes where it is. But give me a map and I can usually find any given street in less than a minute and find a route to it in just a few seconds more.

[kaheidt]

I'm surprised at your list of required programs given that you're starting out with google maps. Why not use google docs for your word, excel, and pdf creation? It probably has something to replace the need for gimp/ps as well.

[frazeeg]

I use what I know how to use, plain and simple. While I recognize that there are plenty of ways to skin the cat, the programs I've listed are what I would use.

Far as I know Google hasn't developed a GIMP/Photoshop alternative.

[kaheidt]

Also, what would be cool is adding some thumbnails of street level views around the margins to act as visual landmarks. The street view has a compass displayed on it, so that takes care of all this orientation talk.

[Timmah]

Pretty darn cool!

[smallstrangegod]

yay for Dupage! :) sorry I had to say that......

[TheTemptress]

I think I'll be making a few of these for my trip to Italy, much better than trying to rely on a smartphone or tourist map!

[rocketman221]

I tried this with the satellite map, and 7000px is way too big. Firefox used 3gb of ram and was constantly swapping for about 5 minutes to save a 150mb png image.
A 3000px image works much better, it only takes a few seconds to save and its only 25mb.
I found that gscan2pdf does a great job of creating the pdf.

[frazeeg]

I think that might be because you were trying with satellite data. Since it's so much more detailed the PNG image is going to be huge. Good suggestion.

Also, I just checked out gscan2pdf and from what I read it looks like it would do a good job as well. Another good suggestion.

[TimberWolf5871]

I have AbiWord. it'r kinda like MSO Word. Will that do?

[frazeeg]

I really couldn't tell you since I haven't used it. I would imagine that it has all the features you'd need though.

[wakojako]

Really good map but I got a really good road map of the UK for just a few pounds at a cheap bookstore in wales.

[Ninzerbean]

You are a most thoughtful and enterprising boyfriend! 5 *'s

[haptotrope]

I made maps like this (maybe not this message) when I travel abroad... Its really great to have maps at the detail level needed to be specific, and not just of the tourist areas!

[Michaël64]

An easy way to build a map using OpenStreeMap data is to use the "MapOSMatic" service :
http://www.maposmatic.org

[alexholman]

A handy hack that I've discovered is that Excel (and perhaps Openoffice) does a remarkably good job of spanning one big image across multiple pages. Go in to page setup and turn the margins down as small as possible and set landscape or portrait as you wish. When you go back to the Excel sheet you should see the grid of dotted lines indicating where the page breaks are going to be in the sheet. Insert an image to the sheet, then zoom way the heck out and drag the size of the image to the number of pages you want it to span (or resize the image properly before you place it in Excel). Then when you go to print, it will properly handle splitting the image for you. If you wanted to do later editing you could output to PDF and edit the individual PDF pages (such as putting on a scale).
You could probably also make use of the Rasterbator tool located at: http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator/

[frazeeg]

I had thought about using Excel like that but decided to go my route since I could be a little more "custom" with the page numbering. Though I suppose with a PDF editing software you could accomplish the same thing while using the Excel trick.

I don't think Rasterbator would work too well. Since it makes a half-tone map of the colors and changes them to dots you lose all the detail.

[WilyHacker]

Fun hack, but I've bought 6-county street maps for Chicagoland for about the same price it cost you to make it.

[nerys]

yes but his is CUSTOM and since it was "NOT" available as a buy in the store map a comparison to what you paid is pretty irrelevant ehh? hehe

Seriously though there are cheaper ways to do this. MUCH cheaper.

First get yourself a color laser printer. You can get them for $50 to $100 on craigslist and they will probable COME with enough toner to make a few dozen of these books.

also inkjet works especially if your going to laminate. NEVER use glossy. the ink sits "on top of" the paper with glossy. this is why it "fades" so readily.

You can get a setting spray to seal it OR buy water proof paper (its not that expensive)

your best bet is to score a $50 to $100 EPSON R260 or R280 printer. you can get the ink CHEAP on ebay :-)

it will also do edge to edge printing (IE no white border)

you can also upload to LULU and get a pro bound book MADE for you. not the cheapest but should not be TOO bad and will be extra cool :-)

[SicilianMafia]

Ha! My house is JUST off that map. I live on the border of Cook and DuPage County (JUST right of O'Hare)

[Teek5449]

Great idea and nice implementation. The only issues that I can foresee is without a proper street index you will have to already know exactly where you are and exactly where you are going. If this is the case then you most likely already know the way from point A to point B even if it is a roundabout path.

I work for a major package delivery company and I go through map books like they were made of tissue paper. I love this idea and only wish that there was a place to download the street names in such a way that they could be used with this idea.

If anyone knows of such a site that has maps with downloadable street indexes that would be great.

[frazeeg]

I had thought of that issue as well. You're right - having an index with street names would be a major help if you were totally lost.

For the most part I've used this to find routes between A and B when my girlfriend and I have been out shopping or whatever and didn't think to look online beforehand for directions. It works rather well in that regard.

Also, since she doesn't really leave DuPage County during the course of a normal week, eventually she would be able to find herself on the map (I hope!).