Producing Orienteering Maps

There is really only one source for good orienteering maps and that is through the O-clubs. Only an orienteer wants or needs the detail we put into our maps. As such, they have no public commercial value except for the occasional procurement by other outdoor adventure organizations. So it's up to us to develop new maps and keep our older ones up-to-date.

Building orienteering maps is a multi step process. I have prepared a document that breaks it down into four major steps with, I hope, a level of detail that makes the process clear but does not overwhelm you with details. Just enough to get started.

I have also built a Summary Cost Table with approximate costs for each step. There is also a FAQ section with the best answers I have.

It's a .pdf file called PRODUCING AN ORIENTEERING MAP

There are lots of other websites with good map-making information.

There is the IOF (Internationa Orienteering Federation) mapping site that is very detailed but somewhat dated: http://lazarus.elte.hu/mc/ik/ik-start.htm

For new or "junior" mappers, there is an interesting guide at:  http://sites.google.com/site/juniormappersguide/home

You can also join the yahoo orienteering mappers group for questions:  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/O-Map