Re: [Paddlewise] GPS/Chart Cases

From: Robert Livingston & Pam Martin <bearboat2_at_comcast.net>
Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 22:17:20 -0800
God knows what copyright violations this might entail and I am not too
interested.

Before I went on my last trip, I took my charts and scanned them with my
computer. I then could take the part of the chart, sometimes combining
things from more charts with Photoshop-equivalent software and then printed
them on the National Geographic paper. That paper allows you to make
waterproof charts with the ordinary ink-jet ink that smears so readily on
ordinary paper.

In addition to being waterproof this stuff is fairly strong. You can print
on both sides. And once the images are in the computer you can do lots of
interesting things such as showing the coastline enlarged in some areas and
the other parts of the chart reduced in size elsewhere. Create overlap
charts etc. Typing notes to yourself etc. Basically you are making your own
custom chart.

This works very well. The magic is the National Geographic "Adventure"
paper. It comes in a few sizes, I used 8.5 by 17 which was the largest my
printer could handle. I got the paper from REI though I see you can buy it
on-line from National Geographic Topo Maps area. I was just at their site
buying the Washington State Topo map which has finally come out with a
Macintosh version. It worked basically as advertised.

With these Topo maps which are already digitized you could do some
additional cools stuff such as combining the nautical chart with the Topo
maps so the land and sea information was of maximal quality. Not too hard
with Photoshop. Combine in some satellite picture data etc...

The unfortunate things is that I do most of my paddling in Canada where
digital map information seems less accessible (I would like a National
Geographic British Columbia map for example.) So I scan in the paper
chart(s).
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Received on Tue Nov 18 2003 - 06:36:28 PST

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