Illustrator Maps of Disney Parks

[rdour@techminds]

Hello,

Has anyone ever made or come across updated maps of the parks created with a vector based graphics program such as Office or Illustrator? I ask because I want to get an export in SVG format and turn it into a tactile map I can bring with to the parks in December.

I'm going solo, and I'm blind. I have this great embosser that will do the trick, but I need SVG or Office formatted maps that are not "bitmap" graphics. Also, the text would need to be text, not graphics. Illustrator and Office both retain text as text when exporting an SVG.

If not, does anyone know of a maping company which has great WDW maps and may be contacted for a potential private purchase of source maps? I don't mind paying for them, since I have no good way of making them myself.

I appreciate any help I get.

Ryan

 

[brkgnews]

I've never seen any AI or EPS versions of the maps... the only thing I've seen in vector form is where someone once recreated the 100 years of magic banners in AI format -- and that was just for fun. Perhaps you could contact guest relations ahead of time and explain the need for the maps in that particular format. They MIGHT be willing to find out if the originals were created in illustrator from the very beginning, or if they were just a bitmap image that was imported into illustrator or corel or whatever they used to make the entire foldout map/guide to each park.

 

[sknydave]

I don't have any helpful information for you, but you're awesome!

 

[rdour@techminds]

Yuck, this doesn't sound good. I would think out of the many Disney geeks out there someone would have done this one already.

I wonder how I would phrase something like that when writing to guest relations. That, and we all know how Disney is about copyrighted works.

Does Google Maps have good park maps? I think I could extract SVG out of that if they do have it.

Thanks,
Ryan

 

[ZambeziZelda]

I wonder how I would phrase something like that when writing to guest relations. That, and we all know how Disney is about copyrighted works.

Yes, but we also all know how Disney generally loves to go above and beyond when it comes to guests with particular needs.

 

[devoy1701]

Hello,

Has anyone ever made or come across updated maps of the parks created with a vector based graphics program such as Office or Illustrator? I ask because I want to get an export in SVG format and turn it into a tactile map I can bring with to the parks in December.

I'm going solo, and I'm blind. I have this great embosser that will do the trick, but I need SVG or Office formatted maps that are not "bitmap" graphics. Also, the text would need to be text, not graphics. Illustrator and Office both retain text as text when exporting an SVG.

If not, does anyone know of a maping company which has great WDW maps and may be contacted for a potential private purchase of source maps? I don't mind paying for them, since I have no good way of making them myself.

I appreciate any help I get.

Ryan

wow I have no idea what you're talking about...but can't you just scan a map onto your computer then use Photoshop cs2 to stitch it back together and to save it under whatever format you need it to be saved as?

 

[enough]

wow I have no idea what you're talking about...but can't you just scan a map onto your computer then use Photoshop cs2 to stitch it back together and to save it under whatever format you need it to be saved as?

not really - SVGs have the property that they aren't really "images" per se, they are information that gets interpreted by a viewer so that the reconstructed image retains it's resolution regardless of how large or small you blow it up (or down).

scanning makes a static image - and if you try to make that static image larger the viewing software has to guess at how to present the image, essentially filling in the information it lacks, whereas with an SVG the viewing software is told how to draw it.

check this out if you're really interested and the above isn't completely boring: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svg

 

[alpop]

I'm guessing that svg stands for Scalable Vector Graphic.

I deal with images and artwork for a living and vectors based graphics generally are the best for most things (except for photos).

And I'd agree that I would have thought somebody would have traced them in a program already.
Hmmmmm... Maybe that's my next project.

 

[brkgnews]

As far as how to phrasse it to guest relations, I'd start by "requesting assistance to accomodate my special needs" and fully explain why you need those particular kinds of grpahics.

 

[theRIOT]

What about scanning it then importing that into Illustrator and creating the vector that way?

I do it all the time with other images.

Would that work for you?

I have Illustrator but no maps or I would be glad to do it.

Cheers!

 

[DisneyJoe]

Would a PDF do?