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Introduction
Selecting an Area
Preparing a Base Map
Choosing a Scale
Field Work
Drafting
Printing
Archiving
FAQ
Appendix
Glossary
Samples

PRINTING THE MAP

There are two aspects to printing an Orienteering map. Printing a map from OCAD, which you use for review or to make color copies , and preparing an OCAD map to be professionally printed via File Transfer Protocol (FTP). Neither are easy tasks. 

Selecting a printer

Ink jet printers are not waterproof. If you print Orienteering maps on an ink jet printer, your Orienteering maps may deteriorate before the competitors cross the finish line. 

Color laser are better than ink jet printer but for the best quality Orienteer map, use offset professional printing.

Printing from OCAD 

The directions for printing from OCAD vary depending on which version of OCAD you are using. The junior mapper is encouraged to learn using OCAD-7 demo. The OCAD software is very powerful and flexible; therefore it has more scales than a fish!  There is the "draft scale", the "print scale", and the "map scale".

"Draft" refers to the template, which is your topo map or fieldwork.  
"Map scale" refers to the ... ummm ... map scale!  
"Print scale" refers to how big the image will appear when printing.  

Draft scale is not a big thing; you can adjust that as you need. Just set it to the same as your map scale for now. "Map scale" is important. Decide on a scale; set OCAD to that scale, and don't change it. If you want to print a large version of your half-done map, then set the "print" scale to a smaller number. To print a 1:10,000 map very big (for field work), set the print scale to 1:5,000. Then put at least four sheets of paper in the printer. The map will be twice the height and twice the width.  

Printing from OCAD7 - Example (click on the thumbnail for a larger picture)

In OCAD 7, select the print icon and the "window" tab.  
The white part is the entire size of your map.  
The solid black outline is your page size.  
The dotted outline is the part of the map OCAD will print.  

This view will show you just how many pages you are about the waste. On the right side, you see boxes labeled "left, "right", "top", and "bottom". Adjusting these numbers will control the size of the printed area. (This is not the scale of the printed map). If you define a small area to print, you will only get a small part of your map, not the whole thing.  

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Printing from OCAD8 - Example (click on the thumbnail for a larger picture)

Print screen in OCAD 8

In OCAD 8, select file/print.  
Select partial map (radio button halfway down screen) 

print2OCAD8.jpg (29733 bytes)

From the next screen, select setup / one page. This page and info is similar to the page shown above for OCAD 7.

 

Preparing an OCAD Map for FTP

This is how Kevin prepares OCAD files to be electronically transferred to the professional printer.

  1. Download the print driver from Canon and install it on home compute. It's a Fiery Docucolor something or other.

  2. From OCAD, select that as the printer and print to a file.

  3. Zip the file.

  4. Login at Imagers and send them the zipped file.

  5. Go pick up the maps.

Georgia Orienteering Club - www.gaorienteering.org