MAPublisher

4.6 (46)
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Cartographic and map designing tool for Adobe Illustrator

About MAPublisher

MAPublisher is a suite of mapping tools for Adobe Illustrator, which helps organizations create maps and manage layers such as vector lines, area, and points within a graphical interface. Features include line plotting, labeling, location or dimension cropping, georeferencing, and grid and index customization.

Cartographers can use the application to import various GIS data formats from ArcGIS, FME Desktop, AutoCAD, and Google to design maps for web or mobile devices. With MAP views, users can access coordinate settings, edit the data placement, and modify layer names. It also offers a MAP attributes table including information about layers, which lets Geographic Information System (GIS) professionals edit schemas, add or remove columns, and apply expressions to modify geospatial components.

The platform allows users to customize map features using style sheets, dot density, and charts themes and specify rules in order to apply custom symbols or character styles to the map. With MAPublisher’s measurement tool, cartographers can calculate distances between multiple points, azimuths, perimeters, and areas of closed paths. Professionals can utilize the geoprocessing capabilities to join, buffer, flip, crop, or simplify map areas while retaining original attributes.


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MAPublisher Software - MAPublisher MAP attribute
MAPublisher Software - MAPublisher themes
MAPublisher Software - MAPublisher point plotter
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MAPublisher video
MAPublisher Software - MAPublisher MAP attribute
MAPublisher Software - MAPublisher themes
MAPublisher Software - MAPublisher point plotter

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MAPublisher

4.6 (46)
VS.
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Starting Price

US$1,399.00
one-time
US$14.00
month

Pricing Options

Free version
Free trial
Free version
Free trial

Features

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Integrations

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Ease of Use

4.0 (46)
4.6 (47)

Value for Money

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Customer Service

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4.6 (47)
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Reviews

Overall rating

4.6 /5
(46)
Value for Money
4.1/5
Features
4.3/5
Ease of Use
4.0/5
Customer Support
4.6/5

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Showing 5 reviews of 46
Stuart
Stuart
Overall rating
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 9.0 /10

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

Reviewed on 2018/06/06

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

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

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Verified Reviewer
Overall rating
  • Industry: Management Consulting
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

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

Reviewed on 2018/06/11

I'm able to create maps as detailed as those created by our GIS team, but they're cleaner and more...

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.

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Verified Reviewer
Overall rating
  • Industry: Graphic Design
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Monthly for 6-12 months
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 4.0 /10

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

Reviewed on 2020/08/24

Pros

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

Cons

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.

Verified Reviewer
Overall rating
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 9.0 /10

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

Reviewed on 2018/06/05

The ability to create the maps I visualize.

The ability to create the maps I visualize.

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Verified Reviewer
Overall rating
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 9.0 /10

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

Reviewed on 2018/06/05

It allows me to do cartographic production work quickly and efficiently, paying for itself with in...

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

Pros

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.

Cons

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

Showing 5 reviews of 46 Read all reviews

MAPublisher FAQs

Below are some frequently asked questions for MAPublisher.

MAPublisher offers the following pricing plans:

  • Starting from: US$1,399.00/one-time
  • Free Trial: Available

MAPublisher offers a 14-day free trial for new users, after which the software is available across 4 pricing tiers. Pricing and functionality are outlined below and includes one year of maintenance. MAPublisher Fixed License: $1399 for single computer MAPublisher Floating License: $2699 for multiple users MAPublisher FME Auto Fixed License (Add-Ons): $499 for single computer MAPublisher FME Auto Floating License (Add-Ons): $949 for multiple users

MAPublisher has the following typical customers:

Self Employed, 2–10, 11–50, 51–200, 201–500, 501–1,000, 1,001–5,000

We do not have any information about what languages MAPublisher supports

MAPublisher supports the following devices:

Android (Mobile), iPhone (Mobile), iPad (Mobile)

MAPublisher integrates with the following applications:

Adobe Illustrator, ArcGIS

MAPublisher offers the following support options:

Email/Help Desk, FAQs/Forum, Knowledge Base, Phone Support, Chat

Related categories

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