6/27/23, 12:10 PM Adding XYZ Tiles to MAPublisher Maps

Adding XYZ Tiles to MAPublisher Maps

Introduction

This tutorial introduces a quick way to add satellite images and raster reference maps,
available as XYZ Tiles, to Illustrator/MAPublisher documents. The imported images will
register with your map regardless of which projection it uses.
Although the technique is most useful for large-scale mapping, my demo uses the
small-scale map below in the Polar Azimuthal Equidistant projection. I will add a
Google satellite image to the area indicated by the red box. It demonstrates how XYZ
Tiles can transform to a much different map projection.
Besides Adobe Illustrator and MAPublisher, you will need QGIS and a good internet
connection to do this tutorial.

Tutorial

Illustrator
1) On your map, create a new MAPublisher map layer. Assign "Area" as the feature type.
Call the layer "Box".

2) Use the AI rectangle tool to draw a rectangle over your area of interest on the Box
layer.

3) From the Map Views fly-out menu (upper right), export the Box layer as a shapefile.

QGIS

4) Launch QGIS. Drag the exported Box shapefile into the Map View. Alternatively, you
can add it via the Menu Bar: Layer/Add Layer/Add Vector Layer

5) In the Browser panel, right-click on XYZ Tiles to open a new connection. Call the new
connection Google Satellite or something similar. Copy and paste the URL below into
the URL field. Then click OK.

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http://www.google.cn/maps/vt?lyrs=s@189&gl=cn&x={x}&y={y}&z={z}

6) Go to the XYZ Tiles list in the Browser panel. Double-click Google Satellite.
A Google satellite image will appear as a new layer above the Box layer after a few
moments. On my example below, note how the Iceland image has transformed to the
Polar Azimuthal Equidistant projection.

7) Go to the Menu Bar and select Project/Import-Export/Export Map to Image.

In the window that appears, ignore all fields except for Resolution. I usually start with
500 DPI and will go even higher to obtain more detail, although doing this bloats file
sizes. Save the image as a TIF.

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Illustrator
8) Open your Illustrator map. Use File/Import Map Data/Import Map Data to bring in the
GeoTIF that you exported from QGIS. The Google Satellite image will align to your
vector map data. Happy mapping.

Additional XYZ Tiles

Bing Satellite
http://ecn.t3.tiles.virtualearth.net/tiles/a{q}.jpeg?g=1

Google Satellite
http://www.google.cn/maps/vt?lyrs=s@189&gl=cn&x={x}&y={y}&z={z}

Google Map
https://mt1.google.com/vt/lyrs=r&x={x}&y={y}&z={z}

Esri Satellite
https://server.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/World_Imagery/MapServer/tile/{
z}/{y}/{x}

Esri World Topo

https://server.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/World_Topo_Map/MapServer/tile
/{z}/{y}/{x}

CartoDB
https://cartodb-basemaps-a.global.ssl.fastly.net/light_all/{z}/{x}/{y}.png

Open Street Map

http://tile.openstreetmap.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png

Russian Topos
http://88.99.52.155/cgi-
bin/tapp/tilecache.py/1.0.0/topomapper_v2/%7Bz%7D/%7Bx%7D/%7By%7D.jpg

Wikimedia
https://maps.wikimedia.org/osm-intl/{z}/{x}/{y}.png

Contact me Name

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6/27/23, 12:10 PM Adding XYZ Tiles to MAPublisher Maps
Do you know of XYZ Tiles that I Email
should add to the list? Drop me a
line. Thanks!
Message
Tom Patterson Bio

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