What is TOPOTOIMAGE?
TopoToImage is a program
for Macintosh computers that creates color and shaded relief images
of the Earth’s surface. TopoToImage is one part of a powerful map
production system. It comes with one or more databases which contain
elevation data. The main purpose of the program is to save Geocart image
databases.
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How
does the program work?
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Simply select the area of the earth you want your map to cover, choose a Gradient Style for your map and export the image. The program comes with hundreds of predefined coloring and shading styles. You can also modify these styles or create your own.
The program saves files in two image formats: Geocart Image databases and TIFF files. Create files of any size. The program is not limited by the amount of memory available. As TopoToImage works it finds the files it needs on the CD-ROMs or your hard disk and tiles them together to form a seamless map.
For complete details download the manual (warning: it big 1.9 MB).
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What
are the databases?
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TOPOTOIMAGE
with Gtopo is
$750
GTOPO is a set of files that contain a high resolution digital elevation model of the entire earth’s land surface. In total, the data base contains 1.7 gigabits of elevation, including islands that are larger than approximately 1 square kilometer. The resolution of the Gtopo data base is 120 pixels per degree or roughly one pixel for every kilometer along the equator. The width of the data base is 43,200 pixels, enough data to print a world map 14 feet wide at 250 dpi.
TOPOTOIMAGE
with UStopo is
$950
USTOPO
is a data base containing high resolution elevation
data for the land surface of the United States. Using this data base
and TopoToImage, you can produce an unlimited number of extremely
detailed color shaded relief images of areas within the U.S. The scale
of UStopo is 1,200 pixels per degree (ten times the scale of the Gtopo
database). There is enough data to create a map of the continental
US 24 feet wide at 250 dpi. This data base comes on 7 CD-ROMs.
TOPOTOIMAGE
with OceanFloor12 is
$250
OceanFloor12 is a single 18 MB file. It contains elevation data for the Earth’s land and ocean floor surface. The scale of the OceanFloor12 data base is 12 pixels per degree. Also included for free with your purchase is OceanFloor30 which is covers the earth between 70° south and 70° north.
TOPOTOIMAGE with all three databases is $1,450
What is the source for the databases?
Gtopo databases were compiled from GTOPO30, which
was created in a collaborative effort led by the staff at the US Geological
Survey.
The data for the UStopo data base was derived from the USGS 1:250,000
Scale Digital Elevation Model, released in 1998.
The land surface in OceanFloor12 is derived from the Gtopo data base
which was scaled to1/10th its size. The ocean floor areas of the data
base is derived from TerrainBase World Wide Digital Terrain Data, released
in 1995 by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
What
projection does TopoToImage produce?
TopoToImage
produces maps in only one projection: Plate Carrée. However TopoToImage
can save this map as a Geocart image database. (Infact this is the main
purpose of TopoToImage). Using Geocart you can reproject the map into
any of over 130 map projections. (A map projection is a method of translating
the three dimensional coordinates of a globe onto a plane such as a
sheet of paper or computer screen.)
The main purpose of TopoToImage is to produce image databases for use
with Geocart. Together TopoToImage and Geocart are tools that can you
can use to produce publication quality maps.
What
is the work flow for using TopoToImage?
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Click
on the icon to see a flow chart showing the basic process that I
use to create maps.Here is my recommendation for software and data
bases to produce maps: Software: Geocart, TopoToImage, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop Databases for TopoToImage: Gtopo, UStopo, OceanFloor 12 Databases for Geocart: Global Shoreline |