MAPublisher

I am very happy with the software, it works well.

Opmerkingen: It allows for accurate mapping with the full design capabilities of Illustrator.

Pluspunten:

The ability to work with georeferenced data directly inside Illustrator is great. It has many useful tools and saves me a lot of time by giving me much more freedom than a standard GIS system for creating visually pleasing maps. It has basic data processing capabilities for selecting, editing and adding attributes including creating legends and map grids.

Minpunten:

Some aspects of the current system can be a bit clunky or limiting but they are improving with each version. Scalebars, map grids and map themes are missing things I would find useful. Map Themes have an export option but not an import option. Scalebars and grids may need to be expanded (breaking the spatial link) to change the placement of the labels to something not available in the options.

I use MAPublisher to create clean, detailed maps for environmental documents.

Opmerkingen: I'm able to create maps as detailed as those created by our GIS team, but they're cleaner and more user-friendly than what our GIS team can make. Project managers often come to me for their maps (made using MAPublisher) instead of the GIS team, because they know my maps will look better.

Pluspunten:

Overall, I enjoy using MAPublisher very much. It allows me to do mapping that I can hardly imagine being able to do otherwise. It's a wonderful tool! What I like most is being able to import and manipulate very detailed GIS data and then having the unlimited design freedom of Adobe Illustrator.

Minpunten:

A couple of minor quirks in the user interface I find annoying: 1) Layer Options Panel: When MAPublisher is installed, and when I create a new layer in Illustrator or modify the layer options (name, color) of an existing layer (MAP layer or not), I will click Okay to save the options, then the layer options panel appears a 2nd time and I have to click Okay again on the layer properties for the panel to go away. 2) Unwanted shift to Legend layer: When I have a legend layer in the file (typically for a scale bar), and when I'm working on some other part of the graphic (either on a MAP layer or a non-MAP layer), if I do something that causes an error, the selected layer will often shift to the legend layer, which is bothersome. That layer is usually locked once I have created the scale bar, but the active layer will occasionally move to the legend (scale bar) layer without my telling it to do so.

Wish they had a tiered pricing structure for small biz / limited use

Pluspunten:

Cool product that allows you to make really nice looking maps. Love the integration with Adobe.

Minpunten:

Hard to learn from a design-perspective. I'm using this for a single non-profit client as a consultant and the pricing structure does not work for me. The hefty up-front price plus yearly maintenance costs (which are hidden well before you buy and realize you need them) eat up way too much budget for my non-profit clients. Couldn't there be a tiered structure for someone who only needs to create/update 1-2 maps per year? A shame given how useful this could be for small operations.

MaPublisher has been my go-to mapping program for years: it enables me to make the maps I envision.

Opmerkingen: The ability to create the maps I visualize.

Pluspunten:

Ease of editing vector data. Ease of label placement and editing. Ability to apply a variety of blending options to layers. Ease of color selection and tweaking. Really appreciate how the program integrates with Photoshop/Geographic Imager.

Minpunten:

My least favorite quality has to do with Adobe Illustrator, not MaPublisher. By only being able to use one-core of the now-common, multi-core processors, Illustrator is vastly underpowered. In complex documents, it bogs down with simple label repositioning, is unable to maintain large numbers of vertices which results in abbreviated coastlines and generally odd shapes, and can be very slow. I wish I could bill Adobe for the time lost.

I use it daily in my work. It's powerful and mostly intuitive to use.

Opmerkingen: It allows me to do cartographic production work quickly and efficiently, paying for itself with in a couple weeks of license renewal.

Pluspunten:

Power and ability to process data quickly and easily. There are some cases where I use it instead of QGIS for basic geoprocessing. It's interface with Illustrator, which is my workhorse for cartographic illustration. It's a central, essential part of my workflow.

Minpunten:

Cost. Expense of floating license, places where the interface does not make simple intuititve leaps or remember previous actions, adding to the number of keyclicks, especially where data processing is repeated multiple times