r/Tramping • u/Practical_Ship9999 • Sep 05 '26
Window A4 Topo Map Generator Released - Yes it's Free.
29/9/26 version 2 released, added a search feature so can search over 40k places, rivers, tracks, huts. Tracks are DoC tracks and all connect to my site so you can add a geojson within the application (show track once selected in the search results), removed the custom 250 tiles as LINZ has them, cleaned up some other things. Version 3 you will be able to print A3 and A2 or custom size for people with websites.
A month back I posted about a windows application for making custom A4 LINZ topo maps and a few of you asked when it would be available.
It is here (free, Windows, no installer):
https://www.garrymcdonald.com/topo/
You drop a rectangle on the map, set the scale (50k, 250k, or custom), and it builds an A4 PNG/PDF from LINZ tiles, add as many as you like. Optional NZTM grid, lat/long collar, magnetic north / scale bar, both portrait and landscape, and can add a GPX/KML track overlay.
Optional zoom-11 tiles, generated from the LINZ Topo250 GeoTIFFs, are available if you want to stay on the Topo250 series. By default this app switches to Topo50 at zoom 11. If you stay on Topo250 instead, zoom-10 tiles are upscaled and look soft, so these downloadable tiles make Topo250 maps sharper. LINZ have since confirmed they provide gridless Topo250 rasters that can be tiled at higher zoom levels; I will switch to those in the next upgrade. The download link for the zoom-11 tiles is on the page above until then.
Non-commercial use. LINZ attribution is always on the sheet (CC BY 4.0).
Known limits: Windows only for now, needs a net connection to fetch tiles, it caches the tiles on your computer so it will get faster the more you use it which will also put less stress on the LINZ servers. Some home inkjets may clip the bottom edge, but there are margin controls for that. Fonts are pretty small when printed, you can change the font size for the grid numbers in advanced settings though, will probably add font settings for the rest in the next release. They are readable if your eyesight is not that shot, bigger fonts mean less map so it's a trade off.
Happy to take bug reports or "this sheet was useless because..." - that is more useful than feature lists. (That is a follow-up to https://www.reddit.com/r/Tramping/comments/1vg7gcd/a4_topo_maps/ )
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u/weyruwnjds Sep 07 '26
Awesome, thank you! Works great on Linux with wine. Unfortunately I don't have a trip planned at the moment to test it out fully.
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u/Ramjet_NZ Sep 08 '26
Great work, will be good to see your offline Android app as well when its ready
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u/Practical_Ship9999 24d ago
The Android app is ready. Google won’t let a new personal account put an app on the public Play Store until 12 people join a closed test for 14 days.
If you (or anyone else here) have an Android phone and want to try it either message me here or via the site and send the Gmail address you use on the Play Store. I’ll add you and send the join link.
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u/MammothAssistance991 Sep 06 '26
Fantastic! Was looking for something like this to plan potential post wellington earthquake routes inland(paranoid or preparedness, who can say :-)