Making a map of Tokyo

[chair24]

Hi there, thanks for viewing my query!

I'm trying to build a large map of Tokyo for when my brother comes to visit and we have a good idea of places to go. I wanted to use Google Maps as oppose to images I can find on Google Images, mainly because of the detail (even the ones at the highest resolutions can't compare).

I intended on zooming in at level 18, clicking the Link function, Customise and Preview Imbedded Map, then tweeking it to a massive resolution of 8000 x 12000, copying the hyperlink to a text file, renaming it to a html file, saving the page a complete webpage (to my HDD) and then using some screen capture software to paste the entire webpage into an image file, then printing it off. However, when I try to use the screen capture software it tells me I don't have enough memory (which for an image with a resolution like that it doesn't surprise me) but I don't know how to get around this. If I try printing from webpage it just prints the top-left hand corner as page 1 and then doesn't do anything. I guess it's an awful lot of data to go to the printer at one time.

I then tried print screening (with an expanded resolution of 3840 x 2400), intending on building the image that way but after about the 3rd or 4th screenshot the computer's low on resources and can't really do much.

So you know, some of the details of my laptop are as follows:
Vostro 1500, 2.8Ghz Core 2 Extreme X7900, 4Gb RAM (32-bit so 3.5Gb accessible), nVidia GeForce 8600m GT.

I was thinking maybe I could just print of many portions of the webpage as smaller images but as I move the scrollbar there's always overlaps and will make the task much more daunting.

Does anyone have any suggestions?
Many thanks!

 

[gizZzmo333]

Hey. your idea intrigues me...

How detailed are you wanting this map to be...give me an idea if you can. Are you printing to a standard 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper? If so, assuming that you want to capture a good deal of Tokyo on that 1 page, the image will have to be zoomed out quite a bit and therefore less detailed.

Also, keep in mind that although you can specify a massive resolution of 8000 x 12000 on the screen, every printer has its own resolution (dpi etc)...if the printer your sending the job to cannot match the resolution you've specified (which most likely is the case)...the final printed image is only going to be limited in its detail.

You should definitely see if you can print to a plotter when you have your final map ready to go. Have you had any experience with GIS software?

Just off the top of my head, I know you can stitch together many individual images to create a larger hi-res image with Photoshop CS4. Worked for me a few times when I needed to combine images for maps- just as long as you have a small overlap in the images, photoshop will analyze and allign the images for the final output with no overlap and no underlap = perfect stitch.

Give me a little more detail about your situation if you can...im interested. As for your 'running out of memory' error...im sure theres gotta be a few workarounds for it

 

[chair24]

Hello there, many thanks for your interest and help!

Yeah I'm looking at printing it on many sheets seen as I don't have access to a plotter, well maybe I do if I look about but I think using my own would be easier.

I wanted to print a map of 8000 x 12000 but I really couldn't figure out how to do it without just printing many different mini-maps and attaching them together with lots of complicated cutting and overlapping.

In the end I decided to find out what the biggest resolution was that my computer could print screen and after using some screen capture software I realised that it was video memory that it needs instead of RAM (maybe I'm stupid but that surprised me). Being on a laptop that's a bit of a pain really! To prevent making a mess of things I went down to level 17 and printed at a slightly lower quality and got what I wanted of Tokyo to fit on a resolution of 6000 x 6000. This was still too big so I captured two images of 6000 x 3000 and printed these out seperately with Qimage, increasing the dpi to 300 and this printed out on 8 pieces of photo paper which when I cut it out and made it was a little smaller than I had hoped.

Anyway thanks for the idea, yeah today I'm going to have a play with Photoshop and see what I can do!

Does photoshop and photoshop files use memory differently to paint and bitmap/other image files?

Many thanks!

 

[gizZzmo333]

I'm glad you got your map....At least it sounds like you've figured out a solution for the time being. As far as i know, no, photoshop does not use memory differently...

Since you want to use your at home printer, which most likely cannot print to pages larger than 8.5 x 11, there is going to be a lot of manual cut and pasting/joining of pages.

I guess its probably not a normal task that you would be doing...but if you had to do it again I would suggest doing a photo stitch thru photoshop, and then taking it to a professional printing shop with access to a plotter and print out a hi res image on a single sheet of paper...really whatever size you want.

On a side note....what do you recommend to see in Tokyo, I'm traveling there in a month's time!!

 

[TFT]

Use this free Poster print program at http://www.gdsoftware.dk/downloads.php, scroll down the page a bit.

It can use any high res image and using A4 sheets allows an overlap automatically to join to the next, and so on up to a maximum of 20 metres x 20 metres.

Roll it up and away you go.

 

[chair24]

Many thanks!

Being greedy though I am making a second attempt to try another at zoom 19! I'm pasting 4000 x 4000 screen captures from Google Maps into bmps but it's taking a long time as there's lots to do. This is about as much as my video memory will let me copy at a time.

Thanks for the advice! Yeah the main reason I wanted to do this was to use photo paper which I suppose is closer to card than normal paper so I'm happy to use my printer! Can you use photopaper for a plotter? I don't really know where I'd access one of these being a foreigner in a country I don't know so well but if I see one I think that'd be handy!

Oh really? You are coming to Tokyo? Ah great! Well from Monday when my brother arrives we'll be going there a lot so I can probably give you an answer after he comes but maybe different things cater for different people. He's 19 so he's too young to drink so that one's out! Are you travelling on your own or with friends or your wife or something? Any particular interests or hobbies? I'll see if I can help.

Thanks TFT for the help! Yeah I'll have a play with that, I think I'm all right with the printing bit but it might make things easier. The main difficulty is constructing the very large bitmap or joining them together into another file where printing software can read it.

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29/7/10 - I've finally pasted these 36 4000 x 4000 bitmaps together into a photoshop file and attempted to turn it into various image formats (flattened ones). Due to the overlap of the images and such, the map is at a resolution of 20669 x 20669.

Now the problem I'm having is printing and spooling. I've saved flattened images as png, bmp, tif and jpg but most of the software on my laptop can't open any of these (apart from Photoshop CS5). I need to find some way to print this, if it's impossible I'll have to divide the file into like 4 seperate ones. I can open the jpg with Qimage but when I try to print it, the printer status just freezes on "Spooling", obviously because the size is too big and Qimage errors up.

Thanks TFT for the Poster Image program suggestion but it refuses to open the file saying they're all corrupted and gives an "Out of Memory" error. I think it's fine with really big images, it's just the quality, resolution size and hardware limitations.

If anyone has any ideas please feel free to help, many thanks!!