Topo PDFs on TopoBuilder (USGS.gov)

[Philip Tschersich]

I recently got map tiles off https://topobuilder.nationalmap.gov/. The process is quite annoying as you can only select coverages that are the equivalent of the original individual USGS quads. Then you submit your request for one or multiple maps and it takes about a day to get an email saying your ‘order’ can be downloaded (as if these were small-batch artisanal, bespoke products and not files sitting on a server). Then you have a bunch of geoPDFs that can be opened in Acrobat where you can turn layers on and off like boundaries, grids, satellite imagery, contour lines, etc. I understand the utility of the layers, but the seeming inability to tile multiple maps together automatically seems like a glaring oversight. Is there some server interface where a region larger than individual TopoPDF ‘quads’ can be selected and downloaded already stitched together?

I went through the bother of downloading like 12 quads, turning the layers I wanted on/off, exporting as a jpeg, and then chopping off the white borders and tiling these together in Photoshop. It was very labor intensive and there must be a better way. The maps are nice and high res, and the ability to toggle overlays is cool, but jeez…

[Philip Tschersich]

Here is an example of the original quad and the pdf version of the same location (with the satellite, geographic boundary, and grid layers turned off, plus some color tweaking in Photoshop).

Old:

New:

A really nice feature of the old USGS maps is they indicates reefs and pinnacles, which is handy for near coastal travel. The new maps drop the pinnacles but still show reefs/rocky shoreline.

For comparison, here is a standard vector-based topo of the same area:

[Philip Tschersich]

Satellite (Bing map tiles loaded in Google Earth):

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