UKH

Finally, after waiting so long I can see that the new OS map site allows printing of 1:25,000 maps with explorer features on then, not just a 1:50k Landranger rendered to 1:25k scale. This means features like dry stone walls etc can now be printed.

At last... no more having to make dodgy/faded photocopies of maps. WooooHoooOOOO!!!!!

Are you sure this is new? I've been printing off proper 1:25000  for years, walls and pylon lines included.

It's not, you've been able to do it for ages.

PEBCAK

It's always been possible to do that, right back to day one.

You could even print 1:25K maps at 1:50K scale if you fiddled with it a bit, which was handy.

Says I need a subscription?

Yes, you need to subscribe to use Landranger and Explorer maps on it and always have had to.  It's spectactularly good value, though, at about £25 a year.

If you want OS maps for free Bing still has them, though printing capability is very limited.

Shocker, something that costs money to produce is not free to use

I think you'll find it is free "at the point if use" in some other countries Switzerland for example. Of course, it's not "free" as it will have been paid for through taxation. Whether everyone's taxes should contribute to my enjoyment of the hills is an interesting question. 

Martin

Switzerland's national mapping is awful compared to the OS.  It's much more like what the OS was doing 40 years ago.

The OS is a brilliant thing, far better than most countries have.  I'm more than happy to pay a small amount (and it is pretty cheap) for the service they provide.

OS aren’t directly funded through taxation, whereas Swisstopo are . They get a lot of government money (gov is one of their main customers) and a lot of their data is open access, just not nicely packaged 1:25 and 1:50k maps. Just because a license to use their maps isn’t a physical “thing”, doesn’t mean they don’t cost money to produce and make available, which needs to be paid by someone - so why not the end user? Especially given the aversion brits seem to have to paying tax…

There is already a means of accessing OS maps for free - borrowing from public libraries.  If I was going to put money into making the outdoors more accessible for less well-off people, there are loads of things I'd consider before making all OS services free.  Better public transport would probably be up there.

I've definitely been missing a trick then because on a few occasions, including reasonably recently I was able to see on screen (PC or Android app) Explorer features @1:25k but the print preview and printout only contained Landranger features @1:25k. I do subscribe and I also have linked it to the Explorer maps I own. I have had many struggles with this and know others who struggled too. Whether I missed something in the past or not, very pleased to say I can do it now

On my OS subscription service you just slide the scale bar up to the top and you have 1:25000. I think it will print even larger but still in that format, if you get my meaning.

I think you've always been able to do that.

My issue just now is that the new OS site doesn't print to scale correctly. 1:50k grids are 18mm, whereas if i use the old site - they print bang on at 20mm. Infuriating! Same map, same settings (actual size) and same printer settings - yet different results.

From another forum, apparently the OS know about this problem with the new site and are "working on it" (that was 05 Jan 2022, I don't know if they attempted a fix yet).

Thanks. I came across this at the weekend past, so i'm assuming there's been very little progress in those 2 months!

Just print screen, surely? 

Nothing stopping you doing that, but if you wanted a large area you'd need to piece it together, and it randomly rotates them a few degrees to make that more difficult.

I've been doing this since 2009. But then I don't use the OS app...

I'm not sure that I would agree that it is awful.

I used Swiss mapping on a race last year and I couldn't fault it.  It's a different style but I'm not sure that OS style mapping would work as well in serious mountain terrain.

I suspect that may be a clash between the maps and your printer settings.

They print pretty much spot on the scale on our printer.

I tried with both the old site and the new site open in the same browser in different windows at the same time. I made sure it was the exact same area and print settings in both, yet the new site spits out smaller than it should. 

I repeated this through different browsers and printing to pdf first rather than the printer, yet still got the same result. I've dropped them an email. Will update if anything comes of it.

It's a known issue.

Email today (10/03/22) from OS support.

"The development team have informed me there is a known issue around printing to scale, that the printout can be a mm short of correct. We’re working on a fix for this at the moment."

And mine are all coming out at 39mm per km.

Is there any way (on OS or other) of printing overlaid map and aerial data, or second best getting aerial data with a grid overlay?

Don't know, but that'd come on handy for surface walking mine sites or other industrial archeology

In reply to HedleyP:

Brilliant! When walking with them, do you get there slightly quicker?

I emailed OS regarding the printing error. Annoyingly if you print a map with a scale bar at the bottom, the scale bar prints accurately but the grid lines are still out. 

I just reverted back to using the old website to print my maps to scale. I'm not techie enough to understand why the new site doesn't print correctly or why they didn't just copy the coding across from the old site.

Not anymore but the vast majority of the data OS collected was fully financed by taxpayers many years ago. This is why the campaign to make them available to everyone for free was ultimately successful. All Rockfax UK mapping now uses the OS free layer as a basis.

In reply to Martin Hore:

My opinion is that governments that invest in things like making good mapping free facilitate small business growth and the payback for the economy is manyfold the investment so it is always much more than just for walkers to use - think tourism in these remoter areas for example.

Of course, you could extend this to the majority of public services like broadband, transport, mobile phone networks, etc. although this view seems to be a little unfashionable these days. There is also a danger that I could turn this into a political thread so I'll shut up.

Alan

I generally use bing maps, F11 to maximise your browser screen, Ctrl+print screen to copy, then paste in to ms word or similar and crop the bit I want to print

I'm finding now that the new OS website doesn't give me the option to print at all.  Instead it gives me the option to generate a PDF, that I can then download.  Is that not the case for everyone else?

It's no bother really as I was 'printing' to pdf anyway, and only then printing that to paper but it does seem a bit odd.  (I keep the PDF so I can easily print another copy of the same map when the first one drops to bits.)

On the subject of how lucky we are to have the OS in GB*, until recently I did have access to a full set of Irish 1:50k OSI maps via Viewranger.  (That I paid about £130 odd for.)  Gone now, and as far as I can tell OSI maps aren't available at all anywhere else online, even to get a look at let alone print something useable.

*(I originally said UK there, but actually the situation in Norn Iron is the same as it is the other side of the border.  You just get useless blank whiteness on the OS website.)

This isn't really very much insight, but I do some web development at work. Printing stuff is actually incredibly annoying. I am occasionally asked to just add some print functionality to page or view as if it is a trivial thing to do, but it inevitably takes ages to get it to print as desired.

I don't know anything about this OS website in particular, but... they likely can't use the same print code because the recent update involved some change(s) to the format of the map data arriving at your computer/phone and/or some bigger framework change to the website as a whole, to make it more modern (which isn't necessarily pointless change for no reason, could be security flaws in an old framework for example) and the old code will not simply not be applicable any more, sad as that is.

I just checked and it’s the same for me too. Bizarre. I wonder any of the developers hang around on UKC but are too ashamed to say so.

Sometimes developers will prefer to create a PDF because they have more control over it than over the browser print functionality.

Creation of the PDF can also be done on the server end of things rather than on your computer, so for some situations may be faster. No idea if that applies in this case.

To avoid any doubt, I am not one of the developers :p

have just subscribed as it's such good value. printed out a 1:25000 map of my locality. it recognized my offline printer. i can't see a save to pdf option.

would it be possible to save high quality image to get printed large (A2)?

OS maps are wonderful, I've been to many countries and looked at maps and think our OS must be the envy of the world.  OS online is brilliant, I've occasionally coughed for the subscription and think it is excellent VFM.  I also love the new paper maps with the free downloads.  Buy the map and you get the phone download which means that where it helps to zoom in you can do so easily.  OS rocks and I wouldn't go on holiday anywhere without a paper copy of where I was.  I've already got my Isle of Wight one even though this time I'm in a hotel, but I had it out yesterday and was already using it to plan my trip and eyeball the carparks and where I could go walking whilst I am there.  In terms of printing, providing you've paid the subscription which seemed quite reasonable I seem to recall being able to print OS for as long as they have had their online access.  Great company, great products IMO

Their online access has recently changed though, they've set up a new re-vamped website at a new address and caused teething problems (hopefully that's all they are) with printing from there.

Currently the old website still works fine for everybody it always worked for, but they're taking that down later this month.  (24th March according to their latest email.)

https://osmaps.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/  you can print to a physical printer, print preview etc

Then there's https://explore.osmaps.com/ where you can specify map style (Explorer versus landranger) but can only "Generate PDF"

Looks like you have to pick between one half-a-job or the other, or screen capture from Bing maps OS as I just did for something despite subscribing to OS maps

Please can I edit my original post and remove the "WooooHoooOOOO!!!!!" bit at the end

"Generate PDF", download PDF, print PDF.  Is that so bad*? 

It suits me perfectly - I was "printing" to a PDF first anyway, and then keeping it so that I can print more copies of an identical map.  (Indefinitely far into the future, even if I no longer have a subscription by then.)

*Except for Glyno.  (See other thread.)

just for the record, I spoke to someone at OS who admitted there was an issue with the grid square size measuring 39mm, and it was on their ’to be resolved’ list. I’m not holding my breath though.