The composer — an A4 sheet with live map frames, legend and scale bar
A print composer for your web maps. Pick a sheet, set the scale, export a 300 dpi PDF — without leaving the browser.
The composer — an A4 sheet with live map frames, legend and scale bar
Print Layouts is the sheet composer inside OrbGIS. You place one or more map frames on real paper — A5 up to A1, plus Letter and Tabloid — and dress them with legends, scale bars, north arrows and locator maps. Every element sits on a millimetre canvas, because paper is measured in millimetres, not pixels.
Map frames are live views of your web maps. Set one to 1:25 000 and the composer solves the view until the frame spans exactly the ground distance the scale demands — the scale printed on the sheet is a statement of fact, not a suggestion. Frames can pin a fixed centre and scale, or follow the linked map's saved viewpoint. Per-frame layer toggles, an optional graticule and a basemap switch handle the cartographic housekeeping.
Export renders each frame in an offscreen map engine at print resolution and composites the whole sheet onto a canvas: PNG, JPEG or multi-page PDF at up to 300 dpi. The PDF comes from a hand-written, dependency-free encoder — one JPEG per page and a correct xref table, nothing else. Layouts autosave as you work, and undo actually works.
Set a printed scale and the map frame solves its view against the paper width until ground metres per millimetre are exact. Presets run from 1:500 to 1:10 000 000.
Legend, scale bar, north arrow and locator all bind to a map frame. The legend mirrors the frame's layer symbology with per-row overrides; the locator draws the frame's extent as a red rectangle on an overview map.
The bar picks the largest nice distance that fits — 5 km, not 4.7 — in bar, stepped or line style, in km, mi or m. Screen preview and export share the same model, so they always agree.
A5 through A1, plus Letter and Tabloid for the transatlantic crowd. Portrait or landscape, margins and bleed, positioned in mm — or cm or inches, if you insist.
Each map frame renders in a hidden map engine at print resolution, then composites onto the sheet. PNG with optional transparency, JPEG, or multi-page PDF, with metadata embedded in the file.
Multi-page PDF export with zero PDF libraries: one JPEG per page, a correct xref table, title and scale in the Info dict. Small, boring, reliable.
Magnetic snapping to page, margin and element edges at 1.5 mm. Rulers, grid, element groups, hide and lock, undo/redo, autosave. Pan and zoom a frame in place with adjust-view mode.
A3 landscape is the default. Choose any size from A5 to A1 (or Letter, or Tabloid), set orientation, margins and bleed.
Link one of your web maps, then set an exact scale or pan and zoom the frame in place. Toggle individual layers, the basemap and a graticule per frame.
Add a legend, scale bar, north arrow and locator inset. They attach to the frame and read its scale and extent — no manual syncing.
Rich text, lines and arrows, shapes, your logo. Page numbers and date fields cover multi-sheet map series.
PNG, JPEG or PDF at 96, 150 or 300 dpi. The dialog shows live pixel dimensions and a size estimate before you commit.
No demo call. No sales funnel. Just sign up and start mapping.