Overview

This page contains information about digital, not paper, maps. This refers to digital images, or DRGs(Digital Raster Graphics), rather than maps created from vector data. The "maps" can be images of topographic maps, street maps, trail maps, satellite images, or images of aerial photos. I use these maps in conjunction with my GPS and OziExplorer. For a comparison of some digital maps available for Canada, see my Map Comparisons page.

Topographic Maps of Canada

The Canadian Centre for Topographic Information has a website called Toporama containing free digital data that includes topographic map images. These map images are not the equivalent of scans of paper topographic maps. There are companies that sell products based on scanning the Canadian Government paper NTS topographic maps.
I have all the Toporama map images for Canada, and am making them available on CDROM. Features of the CDROMs:

There are a total of 980 of the 1:250,000 scale map images, and 6,992 of the 1:50,000 scale map images. Each CDROM contains a Readme file with specific information about the CDROM contents. There are certain Terms and Conditions associated with the use of these map images. Listed below are the CDROMs, with links to small versions of the Index Maps showing the coverage of the map images:

  1. Index 1 Atlantic Provinces
    $75.00CAD
    All of New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island at 1:250,000 (88 images) and 1:50,000 (966 images)
  2. Index 2 Quebec
    $75.00CAD
    All of Quebec at 1:250,000, (153 images) plus Quebec south of 52°N and some of northern Quebec, at 1:50,000 (1,351 images)
  3. Index 3 Ontario
    $75.00CAD
    All of Ontario at 1:250,000, (92 images) plus Ontario south of 51°N and some of northern Ontario, at 1:50,000 (1,002 images)
  4. Index 4 Prairie Provinces
    $80.00CAD
    All of Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan at 1:250,000, (172 images) plus the Prairies south of 56°N and some of the northern Prairies, at 1:50,000 (2,169 images)
    There is too much data to fit on one CDROM, so it is split onto two volumes:
  5. Index 5 British Columbia
    $75.00CAD
    All of British Columbia at 1:250,000, (106 images) plus British Columbia south of 56°N and some of northern British Columbia, at 1:50,000 (1,120 images)
  6. Index 6 Canada's North
    $80.00CAD
    All of the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and the Yukon Territory at 1:250,000, (560 images) plus all of the Yukon(except 115C08) and some of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, at 1:50,000 (1,925 images)
    There is too much data to fit on one CDROM, so it is split onto two volumes:
  7. All six of the above sets(8 CDROMs)
    $375.00CAD

The prices above include shipping by way of Canada Post regular mail. If you wish to have your order sent by a different shipping method, please contact me by email at davep at confluence.org before you place an order. Depending on the shipping method, there may be an additional shipping charge for your order, which can be paid for via the Donations page.

If you decide to purchase any of the above items, please make sure to use a valid email address when placing the order through PayPal. When I receive the order notification from PayPal, I will send you an email asking you to confirm your shipping address, and your order isn't shipped until you respond.

If you are not familiar with the Toporama images, you can download two Toporama topographic map images for southwestern British Columbia - 092G, Vancouver(1:250,000) and 092G06, North Vancouver(1:50,000) in this 1.18MB Zip file, or one Toporama map image for an area north of Lake Louise, Alberta - 082N09, Hector Lake(1:50,000) in this 572KB Zip file. You can also see some of the map images in use on some of my Degree Confluence visits: 50°N 123°W 50°N 122°W 49°N 124°W 49°N 117°W

NASA MrSid Satellite Images of Canada
The USA National Aeronautics and Space Administration(NASA) Earth Science Applications Directorate(ESAD) provides a website where you can obtain free Landsat satellite images for much of the world, called the MrSid Image Server. LizardTech Software's GeoExpress View can be used to view the images. The LizardTech MrSID GeoViewer that is on the CDROMs is no longer available for download.
I have downloaded all the circa 1990 images that cover Canada, and am making them available on a four volume CDROM set, calibrated for use with OziExplorer. This might be of interest to those who have slow internet connections, or who just want to save the time involved in doing the downloads and OziExplorer map calibrations. The images range in size from 5.41MB to 58.3MB, with an average size of 34.7MB. The details are in the readme file that comes with the CDs.
$90.00CAD

The price above includes shipping by way of Canada Post regular mail. If you wish to have your order sent by a different shipping method, please contact me by email at davep at confluence.org before you place your order. Depending on the shipping method, there may be an additional shipping charge for your order, which can be paid for via the Donations page.

If you decide to purchase the above item, please make sure to use a valid email address when placing the order through PayPal. When I receive the order notification from PayPal, I will send you an email asking you to confirm your shipping address, and your order isn't shipped until you respond.

If you need more information, you can email me at davep at confluence dot org
Samples:

Canadian NTS System

Canada's national topographic mapping agency, the Centre for Topographic Information (CITS) of Natural Resources Canada(NRCAN) is responsible for the acquisition, management and dissemination of topographic information for the Canadian landmass.
Topographic maps produced by Natural Resources Canada conform to the National Topographic System(NTS) of Canada. They are available in two standard scales, 1/50,000 and 1/250,000. Printed copies of the NTS Index Maps are available for free from Map Dealers. Digital copies of the current Edition 2 Index Maps are available from this FTP site in both GIF and PDF format. Despite being in a directory named "small_scale", the files are fairly large, starting at about 4.5MB. Other sources of digital copies of the Index Maps that I have seen in other locations on the CITS and NRCAN web or FTP servers are not for the current edition of the Index Maps.

OziExplorer Maps

Some zip files containing a digital map image, and it's OziExplorer calibration file, suitable for use as an Index Map.

Links