Menu
Cart 0

About Map Resources

Map Resources specializes in creating high quality maps for graphics and design professionals.  Our team of cartographers and designers uses the latest techniques to transform GIS data into beautiful vector maps in Adobe Illustrator format.

Today our maps are used by a who's-who list of organizations in Design, Media, Publishing, Education, Government - as well as thousands of small art and design agencies throughout the world.

In 1985, Map Resources published its first map collection in MacPaint format for the Macintosh, followed by the first vector collection of maps in MacDraw format. By today's standards, the maps were crude, but they proved to be an invaluable resource for newspaper publishers and designers who were just moving their work onto the Macintosh computer.  Map Resources maps were highly recommended by MacWorld, MacUser, Publish Magazine, Deadline Mac, and other influential journals.

In 1987, Adobe Systems released Adobe Illustrator®. Map Resources was the first to offer professional quality maps in Adobe Illustrator format.  The maps took advantage of the sophisticated elements in Illustrator that make maps so useful to designers: editable objects, layers, lines and fonts.

Soon after, in 1988, Map Resources and several other mapping companies were invited to Cupertino as Apple rolled out a new focus on "Desktop Mapping".  This effort, which was widely mocked in the press, was actually way ahead of it's time, and unfortunately Apple dropped it quickly.  Since then most mapping companies have focused on Windows, despite the Mac's advantages and preference in graphic design shops world-wide.  We are always amused when a huge mapping operation like National Geographic or ESRI purchases our maps, instead of using their own, to make their printed materials look good!

By using Illustrator's layers palette to organize map features, Map Resources set the standard for editable vector map graphics. By optimizing other tools in Adobe Illustrator, such as the area objects, fonts, and line width, Map Resources created a collection of editable maps that met the exacting requirements of graphics professionals.

Since then, Map Resources has been known among graphic design industry as the best place to go for high quality maps, and the recognized leader in the converging areas of mapping and graphic design. We are members and participants in Visual Connections, Frankfurt Book Fair, International Map Industry Association (IMIA - formerly IMTA), and the Association of American Geographers (AAG).

Map Resources offers a comprehensive collection of stock maps of the world, country, USA, Canada, Congressional District, US cities, and international cities. The maps are available 24/7 for immediate download.  We also make custom maps for hundreds of customers of areas throughout the world.

PowerPoint users can get world and US maps in PPT format.

 When you buy a map from Map Resources, we guarantee you will be satisfied. If you have not happy with your purchase, you have 30 days to return the map for a full refund.