PrettyMap maps

All maps for PrettyMap and PrettyEarth are free, based on free third-party data files that have been converted to the PrettyMap file format (see credits information for each map). Available maps are grouped as follows:

• Popular Earth maps
• Earth high resolution elevation raster maps (PrettyMap required):
  • Land and lower quality underwater
  • Underwater and lower quality land
  • Tiles, land only
• Raster maps of arbitrary regions − you can convert images and use them as maps!
• Vector maps of arbitrary regions on Earth (see sample regions)
• Other planets

There are two basic types of maps: vector and raster. Vector maps consist of points, lines, or areas. These are geometric forms: a line will remain a line and a point will remain a point no matter how much you zoom in. Raster maps are different and can be compared to camera images (bitmaps). They consist of "pixels", i.e. squares with associated values (also called "samples"). For elevation maps, samples are altitude values. On raster maps, samples become visible if you zoom in too much and data resolution is not sufficient.

All maps are stored in *.pmap files and should be copied onto a card, to the /PALM/Programs/PrettyMap/ directory.

Converting more maps

Most vector and raster maps can be converted to the PrettyMap file format. If you have an interesting map or geographical data that may be shared with other users, or you have found one, please contact us.

If you need vector maps of the U.S., have a look at the U.S. Census Bureau shapefiles and ask us to convert selected maps.

Vector maps can be converted most easily from the ESRI's shapefile format (files *.shp, *.dbf, and optionally *.prj), or from the Autodesk DWG format. The limitation for PalmOS is 15000 objects per map layer. If you are an advanced user and you are aware of the shapefile format, check out our vector map converting service.

Raster maps (elevation, symbolic) can be converted from most file formats, where consecutive sample values are stored one after the other. Images can be converted from any graphic file format.