Articles

What’s New? Geographic Imager 6.1

Resources

Geographic Imager 6.1 is available now and in addition to full compatibility with Adobe Photoshop 2020, here are the other exciting new features to make working with spatial imagery in Photoshop even easier:

Vector Import from databases

Geographic Imager allows you to import a number of GIS vector formats directly on to your images in Photoshop. Whether performing a check to ensure accurate georeferencing, QA/QC or simply including supplemental data, this functionality allows you to improve the efficiency of your workflow. For a while, it was only possible to import vector data from your own files however we have added the capability to import from databases including PostGIS Spatial Database, and ESRI File and Personal Databases (.gdb and .mdb). Note that importing vector data from databases is only available in the full version of Geographic Imager.

Improved Mosaic Layer organization

When mosaicking documents in Photoshop with Geographic Imager’s Mosaic tools, you previously had the option to either group the layers from each document into folders or merge all layers into one single layer. In this new release, we’ve added a new option to merge source document layers which will flatten each source document into a single layer, but also keep each document separated in the destination, without the use of folders. This helps to keep the individual images separate while minimizing the number of layers and folders you need to deal with.

Geographic Imager 6.1 Improved mosaic layer

What’s New? MAPublisher 10.5

BlogNovember 13, 2019

MAPublisher 10.5 was released today and it has lots of new and improved features to make it even easier to make beautiful maps in Adobe Illustrator. If you’re new to MAPublisher, you can get a rundown of the full feature set here, and even try it free for 14 days. If you already use MAPublisher, we would love for you to tell us, on our Facebook page about your favourite feature or even share a map you’ve made!

Adobe 2020 Compatibility

This version of MAPublisher is fully compatible with Adobe Illustrator 2020 so go ahead and upgrade! Are you excited? We are too, but mostly about the other new stuff that is also included in this version of MAPublisher.

Interval Markers

Want to add mileage markers or mark intervals along roads, trails or other paths? Do it automatically using this new feature! Options for interval markers are found in the Path Utilities tool.

Define the distance of the interval and the units
Select and style the shape of the interval marker
Choose the font type, size, and spacing within the marker shape
Choose where to start and how to increment the markers

Favourite Fonts

Tired of scrolling through hundreds of irrelevant fonts to find the ones you like? Now you can select your favourite fonts to appear at the top of the font selection list in Illustrator, saving you time and the reactivation of your repetitive stress injury. Recently used fonts will also appear at the top of the list.

NOTE: Screenshot is for illustrative purposes only. We do not advocate for the use of the Comic Sans font by anyone, at any time, for any reason. Ever.)

Customizable MAPublisher Toolbar

MAPublisher has a lot of tools. That’s a good thing, right? But let’s say you’re in a minimalist mood, or just want to simplify your life by tidying up the clutter. Customize the MAPublisher toolbar by selecting which tool categories to display on the toolbar, and hiding the ones you don’t use often. Ahh, now that’s better.

Display Coordinate System Information on Scale Bar

Often, maps include the name of the coordinate systems in which the map is displayed, for reference purposes. It’s easy enough to create a text box and add this information manually, but we’re all about avoiding manual work.

Click the Display coordinate system checkbox in the Scale Bar to include the MAP View coordinate system as part of the scale bar.

Customize the label so that it reads the way you want it to
Decide on the positioning of the text above, below or beside the scale bar
Choose to center or align the label as you see fit

Other Useful Enhancements

MAP Attributes

You can now copy ‘read-only’ attribute values from MAP Attributes. Presumably, if you need or want to use this capability, the description of it probably makes sense to you.

Copy MAP Objects

In the past, you could not automatically link copied objects to layers in the destination document if it contained layers with the same name as the layer in which the copied object originated. Still with us?

Now you can automatically link objects (MAP Themes and Selections) to layers even if the destination document contains layers with the same name as the source document layer which is tied to the copied object. Now, grab a cup of peppermint tea and look at that neat and tidy toolbar for a few minutes to refocus.

MAP Symbols

New Oil & Gas symbols have been added to the MAP Symbols Library, as requested by users in this industry.

MAPublisher makes it easy to make maps in Adobe Illustrator without the manual work, and with the flexibility to style and design maps while retaining the geospatial integrity of the map data. It’s the bridge between the art and science of cartography.

GIS Vector Formats in Adobe Photoshop. They Are Finally Here!

BlogSeptember 4, 2019

It’s an exciting day for anyone who works with geospatial imagery, especially if your workflow involves editing images in Adobe Photoshop. We released a brand new version of Geographic Imager^® – the plug-in for Photoshop that provides tools to make tasks like reprojecting, georeferencing, and terrain shading possible.

In addition to the new features like vector data import and Equal Earth projection support, we also improved many of the existing features that were already there (after all, Geographic Imager has improved the lives of cartographers for many years) and updated the interface so that it looks and feels just like the rest of the Adobe environment. Geographic Imager 6.0 is fully compatible with Adobe Photoshop 2019, and you can find the rest of the system requirements and compatibility requirements here.

Here’s a rundown of the new features you’ll find in Geographic Imager 6.0:

Vector Data Import

This long-awaited feature allows you to import a number of GIS vector formats directly on to your images. Whether performing a check to ensure accurate georeferencing, QA/QC or simply including supplemental data, these tools will improve the efficiency of your workflows. E.g. you can import your polygons from a shape file and convert them to pixel selections in one simple step!

Points and Text Import

Now you can provide geographic context to your images by importing geospatial text data and converting it to cartographic labels, or simply importing points of interest and overlaying them on top of your image in a few clicks. Datasets consisting of point or text features can be imported as Text Layers or by using the Count or Note tools in Photoshop. When using the Text tool, an attribute may be selected to generate the text and the imported text features are grouped together by layer.

When importing with the Note tool, you can control which attributes to include (or exclude) in the note itself. The name of the layer and the feature it belongs to are automatically added to the note.

When importing using the Count tool, no attributes are imported; however, the points are grouped together by layer for easy identification and management.

Similar to the import feature in MAPublisher (for Adobe Illustrator), the spatial and layer filters ensure that you only import what you need.

Line and Area Import

Polyline and polygon data can be imported as a single Photoshop path or each feature can be placed on its own path. The ‘Same path’ method is more beneficial when accessing individual features while the ‘Separate path’ method allows for more control over each feature. Here too, you can filter the data on import using spatial and layer filters, and you can choose attributes to use as path names.

Set your preference before importing for how to handle lines and areas that extend beyond the extents of the canvas; either import only data that intersects the canvas, crop to the canvas, or import everything and allow the data to extend outside of the map area.

Support for the Equal Earth Projection

The Equal Earth projection is gaining popularity as it is intended to provide a visually pleasing alternative to the Gall-Peters projection, which shows landmasses at their true size relative to each other but drastically distorts their shape. With Geographic Imager 6.0 you can reproject virtually any map using Equal Earth (or hundreds of other supported coordinate systems). All of the geospatial information will be recalculated and preserved in the new projection. It’s that easy!

Look and Feel

We’ve updated the Geographic Imager tools and dialog boxes to more closely match the look of the Photoshop interface. When you change the appearance settings in Photoshop, the appearance of the Geographic Imager toolbars and dialog boxes will change to match. Nice, right?

Simplified Chinese Interface

Working with tools in multiple languages can be confusing. So, when the installed version of Photoshop is configured to use the Simplified Chinese language option, you will be prompted to install Geographic Imager in the Chinese language to maintain the continuity of the Geographic Imager experience. For now, Geographic Imager in Simplified Chinese is available for Windows only.

Try Geographic Imager 6.0 today and see how easy it can be – when you have the right tools – to work with spatial imagery in Photoshop!

New Release – Avenza Maps 3.7

NewsJune 4, 2019

Avenza Maps version 3.7 is now available for users on iOS and Android devices! We have added features for both our recreational and Pro subscription users and made some improvements based on user feedback. The newest version of Avenza Maps includes features that will facilitate location monitoring, improve the precision of your data collection and enhance your Avenza Maps experience!

Geofences

New in Avenza Maps 3.7, is Geofencing. These are virtual perimeters or boundaries that are set up around a geographic location. When you approach or leave one of the boundaries, the app triggers a notification on your device. You have the option to create geofences around features in any map including placemarks, tracks, lines, areas, layers, and even the map itself.

Geofences act as a location monitoring tool in order to keep track of your location without needing your phone in your hand at all times! With global geofence notification capability (a Pro feature), you can ensure that you never miss an alert because regardless of the map you have open, your global geofence will always be active.

Plot GPS Average

Pro users can increase the integrity and precision of location data by using the new Plot GPS Average tool to plot placemarks. The tool works by sampling your location over a period of time then deriving the average of the location samples and plotting a placemark on the map.

Map Versions

Avenza Map Store Publishers can now release updates directly to their existing products! Now when an update to one of your previously downloaded maps is released by the publisher, you will be notified in the app and prompted to install the newest version. The notification will appear as a button under the current map that says Update Available. We recommend updating your maps but if you would prefer not to, you can decline the upgrade and the update option disappears.

Any map data linked to the previous version will transfer to the new version of the map. So, if for example, you have a trail map that you use to collect your tracks or plot placemarks, you won’t lose a thing!

There are some big changes and improvements in this version of the app and we’re very excited about it. Our goal is always to ensure that Avenza Maps users can navigate safely and efficiently and collect data even more precisely in the app!

Learn more about all of the new Avenza Maps features in the ‘On the Map’ blog on avenzamaps.com

MAPublisher 10.4 is available now!

Resources

We released an update today, to MAPublisher, our well-known cartography plug-in for Adobe Illustrator. This version features support for the Equal Earth projection, has a new look and feel that more closely matches Adobe Illustrator’s interface and includes new options for importing geospatial data into Illustrator.

Equal Earth Projection

Our partners, Blue Marble Geographics, have added the Equal Earth Projection to their GeoCalc library, the system that we use for data reprojection and coordinate transformations. This projection is now available in MAPublisher 10.4.

The Equal Earth projection was created by veteran cartographers Bojan Šavrič, Bernhard Jenny, and Tom Patterson. It was published in 2018, in the International Journal of Geographical Information Science. Equal Earth is inspired by the widely used Robinson projection and is intended to provide a visually pleasing alternative to the Gall-Peters projection which shows continents and countries at their true size relative to each other but drastically distorts their shapes.

An Equal Earth World Map

By Strebe – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72769307

A Gall-Peters World Map

By Strebe – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16115242

Want an Equal Earth map to experiment with? You can download MAPublisher-enabled Adobe Illustrator files at equal-earth.com

Crop to Artboard

In MAPublisher 10.4, when a matching MAP View is found while using the Import or Copy MAP Objects From tools, you can now choose to crop the added data to an artboard’s extents. This same functionality is available when specifying the destination MAP View in Multiple Data Import. Furthermore, if you don’t want to add data to the existing MAP View, you now have the option to specify which artboard the incoming data will be added to.

New Look

We’ve changed the look of the MAPublisher tools and dialogs to match the colours, fonts, and styles of the Adobe Illustrator interface. So as you use the MAPublisher tools, it feels more like you are still using Illustrator – which of course, you are! The MAPublisher tool and dialog styles will also change to match any changes in the Illustrator interface preferences. Note that the interface changes only apply to Adobe Creative Cloud versions of Illustrator, not CS6.

MAPublisher 10.4 Release Notes

Support for Equal Earth projection
New options available to auto-crop data when importing or copying MAP objects
Enhanced user interface matching Adobe Illustrator interface preferences
Various user interface and usability enhancements

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maps on your iOS, Android and Windows devices.

Get the app. Get the map.