Printing Tips
My printable Pacific Crest Trail maps are easy to print, multi-page .pdf files; 8 1/2 x 11 inches and optimized for high quality printing.
If your printer produces good results printing photographs, it should give good results printing these maps. Many printers have settings to improve print quality. Experiment with these settings and print a few test maps first. If your printer has options to improve printing of fine detail or high quality settings try using these.
Turn off page scaling when printing maps. In the Adobe Acrobat print window make sure “Page Scaling” is set to “None”. The default setting is usually “Fit to Printable Area”. This default setting shrinks the size of the maps and adds a larger white margin.
Good quality paper will improve the appearance and durability of your maps. Buy high quality inkjet paper if you are using an inkjet printer. 500 sheets of high quality inkjet paper can be purchased for around $8.
For best results use Adobe Acrobat Reader for printing, even if your computer has another program that reads .pdf files. Adobe Acrobat prints better than Preview on a Macintosh, for example.
Low Cost Print Services
A company called GISI [formerly called LazerQuick] in Portland, Oregon will print all my PCT maps in color, 2-sided printing for $70 plus shipping. The print quality from GISI is excellent.
You can contact them by email [ center48@gisimarketing.com ] or phone [ 503-228-6306 ] and ask them about "Halfmile's PCT Maps". They are familiar with PCT hikers now, having printed many sets of maps the past two years. GISI has copies of my latest map files, so you can just contact them to work out any printing you need.
If you decide to use GISI’s services it's between you and them. I make no money from this referral. I am just passing along the information and hope it helps someone. I know printing 450 pages of maps can be a chore, especially if you don't have a good printer.
-Halfmile