Map Making

The process of creating the Waterproof Travel Map of Costa Rica is a lot of work and a lot of fun. At Toucan Maps Inc. & Costa Rica Guide we frequently get questions about what it takes and how we do it so we’ve put together a photo gallery showing how we research, create and publish the map.

GIS kids — Maya (age 5) added a few lines to the highways, roads and trails of the Bijagua/Tenorio map I was working on.

…but seriously… here’s how you make a Waterproof Travel Map of Costa Rica.

Tools of the trade. Background – a current copy of the map – sometimes a quick color coded written note is the best way to store information. The gps on the right is a waterproof garmin 60Csx with a high sensitivity chipset and external antenna. It connects to the little netbook via USB and sends our current location within about 20 feet once a second. The netbook runs several programs including NRoute which allows us to mark, encode and label locations on the fly. The paper under the markers is our “cheat sheet” of the ascii codes for the Toucan Maps Inc. proprietary symbol font which lets us put a little image of a hotel, restaurant, canopy tour or 258 other icons in just by typing. The waterproof Olympus 1030sw camera is for snapping geocoded photos of road conditions, signs, and points of interest. At bottom center is a little DC/AC power inverter that plugs into the cigarette lighter and powers everything when we’re in the car, and finally on the far left is the external hard drive to backup the netbook until we can upload to our remote backup database.

The only completely reliable information is first hand information, so we go literally everywhere. One of the new features on the 4th edition is markers indicating rivers that cross roads without bridges. This occurs in hundreds of places on the back roads of Costa Rica so we’ve indicated only the ones along unimproved routes that might be too deep to ford with a 4WD in rainy season.

Sometimes even seeing it for ourselves isn’t enough. This ford on the Rio Tabaco near Marbella on the Nicoya Peninsula can be fifty meters wide and two meters deep in the rainy season.

Of course in addition to updating roads and bridges we have to investigate the hotels, lodges and resorts then make tough decisions on which to include. Of the nearly 15,000 locations we have geocoded only about 300 qualify to appear on each print edition of the Waterproof Travel Map of Costa Rica

Beaches are one of the most important landmarks in Costa Rica ;-)

Reconnaissance from the air is an important tool that can give a quick and accurate overview of new construction like the Alajuelita radial on the circumvalacion (39). All of the photos are geocoded with the longitude, latitude and altitude (for scaling)

The .dxf files are imported into a vector drawing program called Corel Draw where we assign different colors and line widths to each layer based on the road type. For the roads that appear with a “centerline” we make a duplicate of the layer and assign the narrower centerline an appropriate (usually lighter) color so what appears on the map is a road with a white line in the middle and black lines on either edge. The ocean is rendered as blocks of blue trimmed by the shoreline, the elevation profiles are concentric shapes along topographic lines and the rivers are a combination of line where they are narrow and shapes where they widen out.

Points like towns, cities, and mountain peaks are imported from waypoints and satellite data and converted into the appropriate symbol based on size and type. The labels are imported as a separate geocoded layer, aligned with the points using registration marks and then the font is adjusted based on size and type. In total there are more than 86,000 unique items on the two sides of the Waterproof Travel Map of Costa Rica.

The indexes are generated from the gps data collected and codes assigned to each location in the data file. Spreadsheet formulas are used to automatically convert longitudes and latitudes into grid coordinates based on the design of the map with each grid box being 10 minutes square. The codes from the data are automatically converted into the appropriate symbols by a formula that reads the number as an ASCII code a displays that character from the proprietary symbol font created especially for this cartographic application by Toucan Maps Inc. All of the information for a location is concatenated into a single line with the appropriate length ellipsis (the little dots between columns) calculated based on the length of the name and number of descriptive symbols in the line.

We use half a dozen different programs and some custom perl scripts to turn the gps data into a readable map. We use GPSMapEdit and ExpertGPS to export .dxf (CAD – computer aided design format) files as a separate layer for each type of road.

When all the map layers are complete they are combined on a single large graphic with separately prepared designs for the covers, legends and indexes.

Each of the individual regional maps for the reverse side is made in dozens of layers of geocoded lines and points the same way as the main map but on different scales and with higher levels of detail. They’re combined onto a single sheet and border and graphical elements are added.

After uploading the files to our printer’s computer we use a program from Kodak called Insite to look at the final files remotely to make sure everything is still on the image and correctly converted to color separated Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, & blacK files (Our Printer is – Vision Graphics, Inc. | 5610 Boeing Drive | Loveland CO 80538 | www.visiongraphics-inc.com | Highly Recommended !)

CMYK spot color halftone printing examples. On the left are super magnified versions of what each press would put on the page C+M+Y+K = the pattern of dots on the final page after it has run through all four presses and on the far right is what the pattern looks like when it’s not magnified. The patterns of dots are tilted differently for each color, this is called the screen angle and it is necessary to prevent interference patterns called moire (named after a silk fabric with a rippled appearance). This sample shows old fashioned analog patterns where the dots enlarged or contracted to change the color density. Modern digital lithographic plates actually use smaller individual uniformly sized pixels to build up large or small dots.

Insite-Analysis Warnings — Insite also does analysis of dozens of print factors and gives messages and warnings about things that might not work the way you’re expecting them to when the file is used to output the color separated lithographic plates. This screenshot shows some areas boxed in yellow where the ink coverage is below the optimum threshold. Once we approve the digital proofs with a “half million dollar mouse click” the printer starts on the physical proofs.

Printed Map Proofs — There are at least four different kinds of proofs involved in publishing a high quality map. First, we laser print a number of sections a standard HP laserjet color printer while designing and revising. Second, the digital color separated images are checked on screen and finally two different full size prints are made. The sheets at the bottom left and top right are Kodak Oris prints used to check the accuracy of the colors. The Oris process uses very heavy photo paper and can only print on one side of the sheet so a separate folding and alignment proof (top left and folded top right) is printed double sided with an oversized inkjet printer on paper similar in weight to the final map then trimmed and folded to check the alignment. The sheet at the bottom right is the previous edition for comparison. All of these proofs are used in the press check shown in the next section.

Kodak ORIS color proof printer – the proofs are used to make sure that everything is right before etching the aluminum printing plates which cost several hundred dollars.

Color proof printer

Alignment and folding proof printers – these are similar to your home inkjet printer and print all of the colors in one pass. These proofs are trimmed to size and folded to make sure everything is aligned the way you want on the accordion and tri-folds.

This is the control panel for the printing press where the final color adjustments are made based on comparisions of what is being printed with the proofs and what the client (us) wants the final product to look like.

Looking down from above at the center of the picture you can see the four colors of ink on the rollers with yellow at the left then magenta, cyan and black across to the right. The large vertical silver tubes are exhaust and ventilation.

Sue and our account rep John Lawrence looking at the first few out of the press while it was being adjusted.

These are the thin aluminum lithographic plates that have been etched with the image of the map. Long time customers may recognise the vertical “Costa Rica” and quetzal on the cover from our first edition.

There are four plates to print individual colors on each side of the map. They’re really cool looking and although they normally get recycled when the press run is done (they start to oxidize immediately and cannot be reused) we saved some from the 3rd edition and are going hand color them and have them framed. If you’d like a unique piece of art for your Costa Rica beach house let us know…there are four plates from each side (CMYK) and they’re each one of a kind.

The ink shop has hundreds of gallons of different inks and pigments each specifically designed for a particular matrix (matrix is the name for whatever you are printing on whether it’s paper, cloth or any of a number of different plastics). Most professional offset printing uses only four colors (CMYK) to create the entire spectrum in the image, but sometimes a fifth, sixth or more colors are added as “spot” colors. So for a special color of orange exact quantities of red and yellow would be mixed together and printed on a separate plate and roller from the four standard ones.

map rejects — Several hundred maps end up rejected as the print run is fine tuned to get the color, saturation and registration perfect. Not only do the four plates for each side need to be aligned with each other to within a tiny fraction of an inch (in register) the two sides have to be aligned to each other so the map folds correctly. The rejects (as well as the trimmed edges) go directly into the recycle stream.

After the sheet passes through all the printing presses in goes through a dryer and into the coater where it’s sprayed with a UV coating and stacked.

The printing “press” is actually a series of several presses. Each of the tall rectangular boxes houses an individual roller with a plate specifically created for one of the four basic colors (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) and a tray full of that color ink.

The press man is checking for registration, color and any blemishes on the plate that cause defects on the print.

A hydraulic lift is used to move the stacks of maps printed on one side back to the other end of the press to be run through again and print the reverse side.

As the sheet passes through each of the individual presses it’s aligned on a separate roller and the two rollers spin and squeeze together shooting out a sheet printed with the individual “spot” color.

On the far left you can see the press man with a new plate to be installed on a roller set.

and out of the press they come!

After printing the sheets are stacked on pallets and allowed to cure for a few days so they do not stick together under the pressure of the trimmer or folder.

The trimmer slices the excess off of stacks of a few hundred maps at a time. The design goes past the edge of the final trim lines. The extra is called the bleed.

Sheet folder.

I have no idea how the folder works! They go in one side as sheets and come out the other accordian and tri-folded into maps!

Warehouse with completed printing projects waiting for shipping.

Waterproof Travel Map of Costa Rica, ISBN 097637336-X, Toucan Maps Inc.; (January, 2020). Waterproof and rugged road and travel map of Costa Rica plus zoomed detail maps of the most popular regions. Updated annually – ground truthed all the way from Cabo Matapalo to Upala for the new 2020 revision. Roads are clearly differentiated by color and line width for classes from limited access divided highways down to 4WD seasonal tracks – improved and even easier to see the main route to your destination at a glance. 2 sided, 39 in. x 26.25 in. (4.875 in. x 9 in. folded) Locations and easy to read indexes are included for cities and towns, National Parks and other natural areas, beaches, rivers, peaks, volcanoes, waterfalls and the best hotels, lodges, resorts, restaurants and activities. Exclusives o The only street level map in print for the entire Central Valley from the international airport to San Jose. o Detailed maps of Arenal Volcano/Fortuna, Alajuela, Escazu, Heredia, Manuel Antonio/Quepos, Monteverde/Santa Elena, Playa Jaco, Playa Tamarindo/Langosta, Puerto Jimenez & Tenorio/Celeste. o Proprietary symbols for distinctively Costa Rican attractions like zip-line and hanging bridge canopy tours, butterfly gardens, canyoneering, rain forest horseback rides, SCUBA, deep sea fishing, golf, white water rafting, trails and many more. See at a glance what to do where. o Driving distance table and mini map for calculating trip distances and estimating drive times. o A few dozen useful English to Spanish phrase and word translations are provided in an inset. You will appreciate having ‘What is the best way to get there?’ and ‘Can you please show me on the map?’ at your fingertips if yo