Fred refers to the problem of photocopying a laser-printed map, and I, because I was running a course with fewer than 20 runners, had to run on just such a map at the November Classic, which this year was a National Event. I found that my map ruined my run, particularly because index contours and forest roads were indistinguishable. The controller said that maps were the concern of the club, so I subsequently wrote to the chairman of SOC and got a very nice letter and my money back (ed.).
Most cartographers will have made draft prints to check their maps using their own printer, which will most likely be an inkjet, either greyscale or colour, or a black and white laser producing a greyscale print. Both of these options are relatively inexpensive and produce good draft maps for checking. The drawback with the colour inkjet is that the inks are not waterfast.
Until fairly recently, the only viable printing option for clubs has been offset lithography, where the OCAD file is used to produce a set of printing plates in a multi-colour printing process. In the hands of a specialist printing company this can produce very good quality maps, with faithful reproduction of the colours in the International Specification for Orienteering Maps. This is a good system, but by its nature it favours large print runs, since the major expense of the process is in the production and setting up of the printing plates. In order to achieve a reasonable unit cost per map, a print run will generally be 1000 to 2000 whereas for the average event a club would only use a few hundred maps, storing the remainder for the next event on that area, so that it could take several years to use them all. In practice the map goes out of date, may be used once or twice with map corrections but eventually a large number of maps gets discarded. This puts up the real cost of those maps which were used.
The ideal solution would be to print small numbers of individual maps directly from the computer file, without the expensive process of making printing plates. With this method, we could print enough maps for one event, and then update the OCAD file before using the area again. This would also allow multiple versions of the map to be made for an event, with different printed courses and even different scales if needed. When the course is printed with the map, there is no alignment problem, as is the case with overprinting.
The ideal has now become a possibility with the advent of colour laserprinters,. These are prohibitively expensive machines to have attached to a home PC, but many local printing companies now offer a colour laserprinting service. Even over the last couple of years, printing quality has improved dramatically with the introduction of more advanced machines. Print costs are likely to decrease in the future, mainly as a result of faster output, which is currently 40 pages per minute.
There has been much criticism of laserprinted O maps, particularly from the aspect of colour rendering. OCAD is supplied with a standard set of colour values, which needs no alteration when sending files for offset lithographic printing. Those of you who have made colour prints on an inkjet printer will realise that if you use the OCAD default values, the colours do not turn out quite right. This is also the case with laserprinters and moreover, there is considerable variation between makes and indeed models of the same make. In addition, an individual printer's colour output can shift over time as the photoconductor ages. Alterations in colour output can be compensated for by changing the colour settings of the OCAD file. This is a very tedious and time-consuming process, accomplished by trial and error using colour charts displaying the range of colours created in the file. Once a set of values has been established for a particular machine, however, subsequent variations are usually minor.
The latest laserprinters, apart from having superior resolution, can be colour-calibrated to maintain their colour output to standard values. In practice this means that once OCAD colour settings have been established for the particular laserprinter, there should be no necessity to make any further adjustments. The enhanced resolution of these printers means that the striping evident in blocks of dark colour and the yellow edging of contours running through dark green are both virtually eliminated.
Another print method that should perhaps be mentioned is colour photocopying. This is an optical system which often does not give true colour reproduction. It could, however, give satisfactory results provided that the colours of the original are such that correct shades are produced in the copy. Originals could be either laserprints or good quality inkjet prints. Extensive colour matching trials would have to be made, as before, but the likelihood of colour variation is clearly much greater than with direct laserprints, since this is a two stage process. The cost would probably be similar to that of laserprints.
Fred Northrop (WAOC)
I have always been a supporter of mapping local based small areas as a means of bringing youngsters and newcomers into our sport. An area that is too small to hold a colour coded event and is possibly only capable of supporting courses at yellow or white standard would, if mapped and properly organised, offer a lot to schools and youth organisations. A scheme along these lines supported by SMOC and WAOC and organised under the Bedford Orienteering Partnership involving 5 local councils has now been running successfully for a number of years.
Funding for the Norwich proposals is through the Lottery Fund 'Millennium Festival Awards for All' small grants for local groups. Grants under this scheme are made for capital or revenue funding with a minimum award of £500 and a maximum of £5000. The beauty of the scheme as it now stands is that it is aimed at giving priority to small clubs. Orienteering clubs as voluntary organisations most certainly come into this category. Also no partnership funding in cash is required and the application forms are relatively simple to complete by comparison with those for National Lottery schemes.
If other East Anglian clubs are interested in obtaining funding, the telephone number to call for Awards for All forms is 0845 600 2040. Don Locke, BOF Director General at a recent meeting with the Association committee said that the funding arrangements were to be reviewed later next year so if clubs are interested they should act quickly. I was pleased to learn recently that Suffolk OC have also just been awarded an Awards for All grant, so clubs in our region are beginning to get financial help..
Peter Leverington (NOR)