Using this site
We wanted to make this website uncomplicated and simple to use. There are the usual drop-down menus if you like doing things that way. There is also a Categories Block if you prefer. Most users know what area they want the map to cover, whether country, region (i.e. South America) or World. From there you can drill down into vector or relief choices and which size map is required.
The Special Offers block leads to a Special Offers selection page. We will be adding to and changing these Specials on a regular basis.
The Featured Products block can be scrolled using the arrows or by clicking and pushing. Featured products are usually new or updated maps.
When looking through the product screenshots you will find most are quite large, we want you to be able to judge the quality of our mapping in detail. Other online mapping sites would probably not want to show their maps at 1600%, here we positively encourage it. If the cursor changes to a four-way arrow that shows there is more to see if you click and drag using your mouse/pen/finger. It will help to open a wide landscape window to make the most of our screenshots.
There is a 20% automatic discount if a purchase is made of three or more maps. There are no codes to worry about, the discount will be applied in the Cart during checkout and you will see the amount saved before choosing to buy.
Technical Information
Atlas digital maps are sold in a variety of formats. All maps are available in editable Illustrator CS format and most in editable PDF format.
The majority of our maps can be opened using Illustrator CS1 through to CS6. Some of our largest scale maps (e.g. British Isles 500k scale) will probably struggle if used on an earlier CS version, therefore these maps will be only available in Illustrator CS4 for use up to CS6. CS6 has proved to be very stable by us and it overcomes the previous versions RAM memory issues allowing Illustrator based maps much more capacity. We are sure the Adobe Cloud version will be just as good as CS6. We do try to keep the file sizes of our maps as small as possible, sadly high quality detail cannot be achieved without producing larger document sizes. Do check the document size in the description text to make sure you can work with a file before ordering.
True to our name, we always sell maps ready to be used in minutes. Maps bought for use in Illustrator CS editions should not be saved or exported to earlier legacy versions as this will cause severe text break up problems and a total lack of usability. We are now adding PDF formatted maps to most of our product. These can be used as any normal pdf file and still retain the same layering if opened in Illustrator CS. They can be opened in Illustrator CS4 or later and have full editability. Maps are compressed using the latest version of Stuffit and are .zip files prepared for expanding onto either Macintosh or Windows platforms. You will need the latest Stuffit expander available free of charge from Allume Systems or WinZip for other platforms. Mac users need only to double click the download to extract.
Technical help is always available to our customers by emailing us at sales@mapsinminutes.com or by telephone:+44 (0)1840 212135.
If you are an Illustrator user, using atlas digital maps should pose no problems. All files are layered for ease of use and to achieve their look and feel. Editable text fonts used are usually the Times, Helvetica and Verdana families so font replacement may be required by some end users. We find most users make few visual changes to the maps but we encourage creativity, so don't hold back!
We will be adding more detailed technical pages to this section soon. For examples of how our maps work please look through the screenshots on these products.
Wales Political Road map with shaded relief
Gall World map with Hill shading, insets & drop shadow
There are many reasons why we consider ours are the maps to choose. It is our obsession to produce the best digital maps for sale anywhere. We have been doing this for over twenty years. Some of our competitors may have more maps but we keep the importance of quality above sheer numbers. When it comes to the British Isles no one has the range of Illustrator products we can offer. Our mapping is the highest quality but at a reasonable price, and always will be. Our sourcing is from the best in the business. We have access to many extensive map libraries and even if we have not shown on our website the map you want, we are likely to be able to source something to suit. We are here 24/7 so should there be any problems you can rely on us to be on hand.
So why buy from us? Above all, we care. We don't want you to purchase the wrong map to meet your needs. So if you are uncertain about something or just want some advice, give us a ring, we are here to make sure you get the right map.