What I'm forced into now is going through all the trouble of putting data into Basecamp, then having to carry a standard USGS 7.5-minute 24k quad anyway. I hate to hang my life on a GPS because my software won't print maps to a standardized scale that will work with a normal compass or map tool. Seems to me that printing a map from topo software (especially software that you pay for) shouldn't be that difficult.
I'd hate to spend more $ to end up with another topo software that also does not print to 24k scale. However, since I've had such poor luck being happy with a topo-software I decided to post here fist to see what everyone else is doing. They offered me 30% off of the new DeLorme Topo North America Version 10.0. I e-mailed Delorme about another issue I had with this software (since it was old, It wouldn't run on Windows 7 without having windows run it in a Windoes XP SP2 compatability mode). I also had an old copy of DeLorme Topo USA (version 4.0), but THIS software also doesn't allow printing of maps to a 24k scale. The Gmap4 software is great, but if it has the ability to print a map to scale, I haven't figured it out. I've also tried the free "Gmap4" software at: However, this seems like a feature that the software should just "do"! It doesn't give exactly 2,000-feet per inch like a REAL topo, but it does "function". The closest I can get is to print them at whatever the next scale up is (0.5-miles per inch usually), then set the photo-copier to shrink the image by 75%. It can't print at ANY standard defined map scale for that matter. However Basecamp can't print topo maps at 24k or 100k scale.
I have the latest Garmin Basecamp and bought the topos for $100 to go with my Garmin Rino.
What I'd like to do is print my topo maps to scale (preferably 24k) so that the scales on my compass or map tools would work the same way that I'm used to using standard USGS 24k topo maps. Reason 2 is it's easier to take a quick look at a topo map and use a compass for quick checkss along a hike and save some battey on your GPS. Reason 1 is backup in case your GPS fails. I think it's important to have paper maps on a long hike. I'm looking for advice on the best software out there for printing topo maps.
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