The march of mobile phones with integrated navigational software, GPS and location services, ought to have hammered a final nail into the coffin of the printed map. It hasn’t, except perhaps for the once ubiquitous A to Z and the road atlas.
And while there are fewer specialist map printers in the country, the diversity of maps has exploded. Printed maps are no longer confined to the Ordnance Survey, but can be found on display boards at the edge of woodlands; to show the hazards on the next golf hole; to be picked up in hotels, displayed on boards in town centres; at bus stops and of course on the London Underground where Harry Beck’s ground breaking design is still being used even as the transport system itself becomes more complex.
Attempts to consign print to the history books has also foundered. The UK Hydrographic Office announced last year that it would be phasing out the printed navigational chart – a map of what is under the surface of the ocean as much as the land that can be seen – by 2026. UKHO has now back pedalled as it is clear that digital navigational systems will not have taken over by then, that there are places where these are not reliable and that a map or chart is frequently about far more than the immediate task in hand.
UKHO still plans to cease printing, but not now until 2030 and perhaps even beyond that cut off. Many leisure mariners, professional charter businesses and even lifeboat skippers were dismayed at the loss of print on paper, making their views known. The idea was that a digital navigation system ECDIS, would be supersede paper as a better alternative. But it can be costly and will take time to install the dual systems that are necessary for every sea going vessel.
Likewise digital mapping applications were considered the way forward for users who can struggle with folding a map in the wind, or who need the most up to date information possible. Consequently maps that locate pipes and boundaries for council workers are on their way to being digital. In many other instances, print remains powerful.
The Ordnance Survey, the UK’s official publisher of maps, has embraced digital technology with a mapping app that delivers geospatial information to the phone and in return provides data about walking routes back for analysis. But there are inevitable questions about the availability of network coverage and practicality in wide open landscapes. The agency does not publish statistics on map sales. However, the most popular maps can sell 15,000-20,000 copies a year to walkers and cyclists.
The organisation closed its own print works several years ago and outsourced printing first to Butler & Tanner and now to Dennis Maps in Frome, the UK’s last dedicated map printer. It is not the only company printing maps but it is the most active.
Dennis Maps will print more than 2 million maps and charts a year, not all for Ordnance Survey, on a six-colour KBA 162a printing on a 1,200×1,620mm sheet. It has two Canon ColorWave 3800 printers which use Océ’s CrystalPoint solid inkjet technology for digital printing. This system avoids the feathering that can happen when water based inks interact with paper, and the technology delivers the crisp print results that are needed for clarity in map production.
There is also a Ricoh Pro C7200, used to print covers for the folded maps rather than the maps themselves.
“We can print 20,000 copies a time for a popular title like the OS map of the Lake District,” says operations director Roger Gilson. “Other less popular titles might be 500 copies with 2,000 an average for OS.” It publishes the Explorer and Landranger maps as accurate depictions of town and countryside, road and railway. The OS is far from the only customer: Harvey Maps started by publishing orienteering maps before shifting to more general leisure maps. Waterway maps, for users of the canal and river network, are published by Heron Maps. These take the river or canal as the main feature and exaggerate this and its immediate surroundings to provide information that is pertinent to boat users, but not featured on standard OS maps.
Walking maps take a similar approach adding details that not always apparent from a GPS map and using print to enrich the experience. Google Maps does not do this.
Dennis Maps does not do any mapping of its own, working with data supplied by publishers. This is necessarily fresh each time, says Gilson, as newer features are included and maps updated. Careful inspection of plates is needed to ensure that there are no scratches which might inadvertently add an unwanted feature to the landscape.
This is not so relevant for special edition maps, like those of Roman Britain or Ancient Britain that OS has started to publish. Though even here changes can be made when new settlements are uncovered by archaeologists.
The maps are made to last, printed on specialist papers that are designed to withstand the folding process and avoiding high glare papers which might make the map difficult to use. Harvey Maps for example specifies Polyart as the ideal substrate for frequent use. Linen backed papers, once used by Ordnance Survey, have fallen out of use.
Once printed these are folded on MBO folders and its case, printed on the Ricoh, added by machine. “We print maps for the Ordnance Survey, for OS Northern Ireland and OS Ireland as well as more commercial publishers,” says Gilson. “Our USP is the format we can print. If a map needs to be smaller, says A3 for a town map, it can be printed anywhere.”
Mapping itself is becoming easier, using open source and GPS data to feed into development of maps. Additional databases can result in highly attractive or highly practical maps. At one time surveyors needed to march across the countryside with theodolites to measure height and distance using known trigonometric points, some of which still exist. Now satellite imagery has made the raw data easier to collect.
Website Mapping London combines fun maps, from the pubs around the Circle Line to mapping air pollution on the Tube. Few will ever become printed maps. The London Underground map on the other hand is one that has never been out of print since its first trial publication of 500 copies in 1933. It is constantly changing as new lines are added and stations are closed or their names changed. This poses challenges for modern designers and typographers who need to retain the functionality of the map and its design clarity while accommodating the Overground lines, the DLR or more recently, the Elizabeth Line.
Transport maps remain popular in print form for travellers to carry with them and a printed map alongside a time table at a bus stop will bring locations to life where a traveller is new to that journey.
This is an area where Pindar Creative has specialised. Having developed software for automatic pagination for Yellow Pages and other directories, Pindar applied this knowledge to timetables and by extension to mapping applications. The business was operating from Aylesbury when the print group collapsed but was rescued by Halstan, a book printer that saw an opportunity to create a software development team. Pindar had developed typesetting skills for public transport businesses, partly for structured documents like timetables and partly to help legibility of maps. It was outsourcing the print for these and Halstan stood to gain from the print spend and also to include the IT expertise as part of its own workflows.
And it has continued to be a contributor to the business. Chief executive Rupert Smith says: “Cartography remains strong for us. We are working with electronic bus panels which carry the timetables and can have up to the minute updates should there be disruption.”
Print work for the maps will be sent out to Dennis Maps where the presses are more suitable than Halstan’s which are geared towards book production. There is a cross over. There are travel guides which include maps of that destination, work for the Ramblers’ Association and walking routes for schools that can be downloaded and printed at home.
For Halstan and Pindar Creative, the starting point is the data. For Silvermaze the starting point is the concept. Derek Reed, managing director, first became involved in mapping in the late 1980s producing maps during the first Gulf War using the then new GPS technology. That led to creating 3D maps of towns, cities and other locations.
These are frequently used at strategic points around a town to help guide visitors and take a landmark building, a church or town hall say, and using this as the focal point to map the streets and other points of interest in relation to the key landmark.
“It is far more difficult to produce a 3D map than a 2D map,” says Reed. When he left map printer Cook, Hammond & Kell, he had decided to move to a quieter life in Somerset. Instead Reed carried on mapping. He still loves a printed map. “The major advantage of a printed map is that you can see the whole area in one go, while a phone screen is almost impossible to read. It is definitely a much nicer experience to read a printed map.”
The starting point for the 3D map is the point of view that becomes where the observer is looking over the town or city is watching. An aerial image is therefore essential, at times Reed says the team has had to hire a light plane or fly a drone to get the image needed. “If we can’t source the oblique image that we want, we will have to commission aerial photography. That can involve getting permission from air traffic control to fly a helicopter over a city. It helps get the chosen shot and all the key buildings need to be accurately rendered. “It’s all done by eye,” he says.
These days the desired image is more likely to exist meaning an agency can generally supply the pic when asked. Not always. When Reed asked for a picture of Perth, meaning Scotland, the picture of a wide sweeping bay and modern buildings provided were of Perth, but in western Australia.
The key image is followed by gathering of more information the old fashioned way of walking the streets, measurements and observation. As many of the maps created in this way are used by architects and surveyors, there is a need for accuracy.
He has been involved in mapping African countries for oil companies, a 3D map of the Covent Garden area of London, the British Geology map which has 24 special colours and needed six passes through the press. Another map of the West Indies for authorities was spurned by the client, though has been picked up the tourist trade and is highly popular with cruise ships. “People like a printed map,” he says. “It will fold away neatly into a pocket, the user gets to see the whole area rather than a little piece of screen. It’s much easier to orient oneself.”
That is precisely the idea of an orienteering map. The sport which began in Scandinavia has spread globally and with it the need for maps for the participants to follow. BML Print in Farnham is a specialist in orienteering maps. Jack Benham says the niche started when he was younger and his father (managing director Nigel Benham) took the whole family out to a competition.
“He saw the style of maps being used and thought ‘we can do this’. We spoke to the clubs organising the events and we grew. We now have contacts across the UK and when they have an event they will come to us,” he says.
There are unique aspects to the maps, so standard OS maps cannot be used. Instead the map maker will walk the route with a dedicated software to include the points that the runners need to know. This becomes a PDF and is combined with Lidar information to add the contours and finally the map undergoes some hand editing to achieve the final article. It will then be printed out in a convenient format, generally A3 or slightly larger, for distribution on the day.
BML has taken that experience into other sporting events requiring maps, bespoke maps for businesses, universities and local authorities. “Maps,” says Benham, “are still very much required.”
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