Google maps

[ladyofastolat]

Today I will be mostly Grrring about Google maps. In particular, I am Grring about the extreme rubbishness of Google maps when you try to print a page out. (Or, at least, when I try to print something out. There may well be a trick to it that I've entirely failed to notice.) On Monday, I needed to walk from Waterloo Station to a place barely half a mile away. I therefore adjusted and zoomed the map so my screen showed both Waterloo Station and my destination, at a scale detailed enough to show the relevant road names. However, "print preview" informed me that if I printed it, I would get a completely different area, one that didn't include Waterloo Station, and almost all the road names would disappear. I zoomed in, reasoning that I didn't need to have the whole of Waterloo Station on my map. This time, every tiny little alleyway and lane had its name showing on the map on the screen. Print preview: almost all those names had vanished.

Other mapping sites don't seem to have that problem. I sometimes use Streetmap, but find the maps rather dense and busy in urban areas, due to the thick roads and black lines around them. A colleague recommended walkit.com, which instantly managed to give me a map showing my start point, my end point, and all the relevant road names in between. I'm going to London again today, and this time needed a slightly longer route, from Waterloo to somewhere in Westminster, and again walkit.com coped admirably. Google maps gave up entirely, giving me a river and some patches of green, with the rest of the page a desert of nameless beige.

Why is that, when asked to print a page, Google maps promptly erases all the useful information from the map? (This is a genuine question. There may well be a Good Reason for it that I am unaware of.) Do they assume that everyone using the maps is doing so on a portable device? By trying to print out a useable map, am I asking for something that is SO last century that it's ridiculous?

Comments

[ylla.livejournal.com]

In Firefox I seem to get roughly the same as what I could see, only with an extra bit that was covered by the instructions before.

In IE it's sort of the same, but stretched out long and thin!

I don't seem to have chrome on here to try.

So I think you've upset it somehow, but I don't have anything to suggest, sorry!

[themis1.livejournal.com]

It hasn't been the same since they 'updated' it - the update being a version that works great if you're walking along looking at it on your mobile phone. Since, like you, I like to print my map and have it in my hand, I also swear at it a lot. The trouble is, I haven't found an alternative that isn't as bad when it comes to printing :-(

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I've never gotten that far. What I want to know is, why do Google maps - AND the other online mapping services - AND not just since they've updated it - print out - AND display on the screen - in tones of faint gray? What's wrong with using a little black?

Google Map

[vipinbuckshey.livejournal.com]

This is one of the major concern with browsers.

[leesa_perrie]

It's a looong time since I've tried printing out Google maps, as they print out so faint for some reason that roads disappear completely!! As such, I can't remember if the road names disappeared as well, sorry. Although not keen on how Streetmap prints sometimes, that's the one I use for printing, while Google I use mainly for streetview.

I shall now be investigating walkit.com, thank you!

[sally_maria]

I must admit I haven't printed a Google map in years, and don't remember how they worked then.

Given how much of a nuisance it's being I would be tempted to screen cap the map as it is on your screen, and see if printing it from Paint or other graphics programme would help.

[inamac.livejournal.com]

I use Bing maps. But I hardly ever print anything direct from the web I either hit 'print screen' or I pull up 'Paint', hit 'ctrl/printscr' on the web browser, paste to Paint and edit the 'picture' before printing out - which means I can select the bits I want and paste together a map of the whole route I need if necessary at whatever resolution I need.