Printing? Scanning?

Every serious navigator needs every now and then to do something to their maps. Most common of those is scanning and plotting (printing on large papers). The process is straightforward and the shops are quite used to it and best of all, it's very affordable!

Here are some service providers in Cairo.

Plotting

Render people seem to be very good in what they do. They originally do architectural presentations and plotting on large papers is quite an easy job for them.

They differentiate between two types: line-art (maps of lines on white background like contours) and call them Vector, and the other is solid-colored (eg, satellite images where map is totally covered solid color) and is called Raster.

Example of raster images

Vector plotting prices (year 2006):

Raster plotting prices (year 2006)

Of course, you have to bring the printable files to their offices in a common format. Something like one of AutoCAD's or GIS's formats is good but you may like to consult with them on which ones.

Scanning:

Working Hours: 9:00AM - 11:00PM (Fridays Off)
Tel: 02- 336 3059
Address: 3a Degla St, Mohandessin

Render has a website:
http://www.renderlimited.com

Owner (Eng. Hatem elTody) is a SaharaSafaris member and an established desert lover (although has no 4x4 as of the date of writing this (2006)!) with an excellent photographic archives from his travels.

 

Scanning

Render can send also your maps of any size for scanning. Prices are dependent on size of the map which and should lie between LE40 and LE90.

If you're scanning your map, make sure you understand the following:

Scanning Resolution

200 dpi (dot per inch) is the least acceptable resolution from the scanning shop. if it's too big for you, use software to resize to 150dpi or less but keep the 200dpi somewhere safe since some details will not appear in less than that. 300dpi is reproduction quality. you probably don't need that unless you might use it to print in magazines or another high quality publication.

Your software should be able to check the resulted resolution.

Color Depth

It is the number of colors found in every bit. Least is 16 colors, then 24, 128, and up to 64 million colors. You're probably very safe with 256 for any map or even satellite images.

It's worth noting that 24 colors are approx 3 times as large as 8 colors in terms of file sizes.

Compression

Most scanning shops provide the files in .jpg. It's ok and you could use that but it's already degraded and might not be clear in some smaller resolutions for some important names and numbers. Instead, you might like to ask for it in .tiff or .bmp . Both are similar and are very large for some files. If a single file couldn't fit on a CD, you might like to compress it with .zip, but then that's rare and you're probably ok with .jpg.

.tiff and .bmp are not good for working with, but could be used for archiving in case of some enlargement needed for an area of the map.

Another compression is MrSid which unlike .jpg doesn't reduce the quality and is even higher in rate of compression. Although it's getting more widely spread, software that can produce it are quite expensive and high-end. Most viewers are now equipped to be able to read it. Satellite imagery software are specially good with it.

Generally, you're safe with any sort of compression as far as you've checked the smallest fonts on the screens and you can read it. Keep in mind though that for printing you need better resolution than ones you need for screen viewing.

Scanning Edges

Check the edges of the scanned image before you leave the shop! If coordinates are not clear, then your map is NOT properly scanned and must be done again.

Although this obvious, but I am emphasizing it here for its specific importance for navigation.

You don't need to read the entire website here before you ask a question. :) If you have any, please email now. If you have additions/corrections to the above, that's even better.