“Lesson 3e: The National Map Viewer Tool Functionality: Print”
“The National Map viewer is a primary access point for the ‘visualization’ of geospatial
data that composes The National Map and functions as a tool to enable use of the data in a web
environment. In this lesson, we will provide the user with a demonstration of functionality
and capabilities of tools in The National Map Viewer.”
“By the end of this lesson, you will be able to use the Print tool and select Advanced
options for printing the map shown in the National Map Viewer. “
“The National Map viewer serves as a window into freely available base map data that is
consistent on a national level, and provides resources to access the data through a variety
of products and services. To access the viewer, launch a web browser and navigate to The National
Map launch page at link shown. Once at this site, click the link for “TNM Viewer”.
“For help at any time, click the “Help” hyperlink. This is a temporary location for
the help link. In the long-term the help link will move to the toolbar at the top of the
viewer as shown in the previous lesson 3d. ”Zoom into an area of interest by entering
an address or place name in the search box shown in the upper right corner.” Close
the ‘Search Result’ box by clicking on the X shown in the right side of the Search
Result box.” “Now we’ll discuss the Print tool. Click
on the Print icon to open the Print tool.” Note that the print tool may be hidden in
the “More” icon, which will appear as an ellipsis at the end of the row of icons.
“Choose a layout for the map by clicking the down arrow in the Layout window. Note
that if the MAP_ONLY format is chosen this will result in printing only the map and will
omit any marginal information. Let’s use Letter ANSI A Landscape to demonstrate. ANSI
A refers to the American National Standards Institute’s standard for paper sizes in
the U.S. and for ANSI A this is 8 ½ by 11 inches.”
“The Map Title defaults to The National Map Viewer. Click on the Map Title box to
enter a title. We will add Golden, Colorado to the title.”
“Select the desired format for the map by clicking the down arrow for the Format box.
Let’s choose PDF.” “We can create a printable file of the map
as shown in the viewer, with the specified Map Title, Layout and Format. Click on the
Print button to submit all information to create the file. A progress bar appears next
to the executing task. Upon the completion of the task, a link to the print output file
is displayed, with the map title shown as the file name. Click the file name to open
the file in a new window.” Click on the Print icon in the upper right
corner and then the Print button which displays in the upper left corner of the Print window
to print the map. “To return to the National Map Viewer, close
the tab.” “There are also advanced print options.
Click on the Advanced button to open a menu with advanced print options. “
“The Map scale/extent section defines the method that the print service should use to
calculate the printed extent of the map. Preserving map scale may cause the printed map to maintain
its scale while recalculating the extent around the existing center point. While preserving
the map extent may cause the scale to adjust to fit the current map extent in the printed
map. You may also force a specific scale by selecting
the Force scale option and entering a scale of your choice. Note that the current map
scale is seen in the lower left of the National Map Viewer. Click current to populate the
value with the current scale of the map. “The Layout metadata allows you to override
the default map text values set by the configuration. Enter values for the Author and Copyright
fields by clicking on the Author or Copyright boxes. These features allow the map creator
to add their name and provide any copyright information that may be related to information
that the creator added to the map. Check the Include legend check box to display
the legend on the printed map. “Note that if you selected the MAP_ONLY
format in the Layout dropdown menu, you may provide dimensions for the Width and Height
of the map in pixels. Otherwise, these values are ignored.”
“The Print quality section allows you to update the resolution of the printed map.
Provide an updated value for the DPI (dots per inch) in the text box.”
“After all options have been set with the applicable values, click the Print button
to submit all information to create the file. This creates a printable file of the map as
shown in the viewer, with the specified Map Title, Layout, Format and Advanced options.
A progress bar appears next to the executing task. Upon the completion of the task, a link
to the print output file is displayed with the map title shown as the file name. Click
the file name to open the file in a new window.” “To return to the National Map Viewer, close
the tab.” In this lesson, we discussed how to use the
Print tool and select Advanced options for printing the map shown in the National Map
Viewer.