
- #Create a custom map from image free pdf
- #Create a custom map from image free full
- #Create a custom map from image free pro
- #Create a custom map from image free download
- #Create a custom map from image free free
This will allow you to see the globe in Google Earth through your JPEG overlay. Then adjust the Transparency slider to right about in the middle. Give your map a name, then hit the Browse button and open the JPEG image you just saved.
#Create a custom map from image free pro
Open up the desktop version of Google Earth Pro and navigate to the approximate area where your map belongs. In other words, we are going to tell the computer where this map image belongs on the globe.

Now that our map is in the JPEG format, it's time to georeference it. Be sure to deselect the checkbox next to "Progressive." If you don't do this, everything will work until you upload the map onto your GPS, when it suddenly won't show up. First, slide the Quality setting all the way up to 100. Now you should be presented with even more options! But there are some important settings here, don't just click Export again. Give your map a name, then click "Select File Type (By Extension)" near the bottom of the Export window and select JPEG image. Now we'll export the map into the JPEG image format. Then select the area you want to keep and press Enter on your keyboard. In GIMP, this can be done by selecting Tools>Transform Tools>Crop. Now is also a great time to crop your map if it has any boarders or frames you don't want to see when you load it onto your GPS. Spend some time playing around with the resolution until you find a setting that looks good. All of the text and important detail is clear.
#Create a custom map from image free pdf
I'm going to close this and import the PDF map again, this time setting the resolution to 200pixels/in.Īnd it looks great.

This may be just fine for your purposes, and that's great. It's okay, but some of the small text is getting hard to read. First I'll try the default resolution of 100 pixels/in and see how that looks. For now, we'll just focus on keeping the map looking good as it's converted into an image. Don't worry about the GPS's image size limit yet, though. The real thing we need to pay attention to here is the resolution. Since a PDF is not an image file, upon opening GIMP prompts me to import the PDF and gives me some options.
#Create a custom map from image free free
To do this, I'll be using GIMP, a free open source image editor with functionality similar to Photoshop. My map is a PDF file, so the first thing I'll need to do to get the map onto my GPS is convert it into a JPEG. Doing this manually can be very frustrating and a lot of work for a large map. When a map is tiled, it is divided into smaller pieces, or "tiles" which are displayed adjacent to each other, creating a seamless image.
#Create a custom map from image free full
While there is no way to completely get around these limitations, we can use a method called map tiling to upload maps that are larger than these limits and view them in full resolution.

It doesn't matter if you have the storage space, any more and they won't load.
#Create a custom map from image free download
You can download the originals or rely on my descriptions to get a sense of image quality.

I believe this is due to compression used by the website when loading the images. Please note that many of the screenshots in this Instructable look pretty bad. In this Instructable, I'll lay out a simple process I've come up with for making custom maps for Garmin outdoor GPS units and share the entirely free tools I use to do it. So many tools and suggestions, in fact, that it's a bit overwhelming. Of course, they won't tell you some clever tricks to get around them! While it's not possible to completely circumvent Garmin's limitations, there are a wealth of tools online - some free, and some not - that can help you make better custom maps. Garmin has purposefully included limitations on the size and number of custom maps you can upload to your device to encourage you to purchase their premium maps. Garmin provides instructions for doing this here, but there's a catch. Even if your unit came with TOPO maps, you can improve the functionality of your GPS by creating and uploading custom maps of areas you explore often. If you have a Garmin GPS designed for hiking and other outdoor activities (including the GPSMAP, eTrex, Colorado, Dakota, Oregon, and Montana series, among a few others), you don't have to settle for the bare-bones maps that came pre-loaded on it.
