Mountain High Maps Frontiers

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Frequently Asked Questions - Frontiers
For additional information, please see the Mountain High Maps Online User Guide.

Q: Could not find country names on Frontiers using Photoshop.

A: Country names are not found on the TIFF files except as Photoshop Paths on the Base relief map on Mountain High Maps Version 2.1 and later. Country names are available on the EPS and FreeHand files. Convert your TIFF image to EPS and overlay the EPS or FreeHand layers.

Q: Cannot read files from the MHM Frontiers CD-ROM.

A: Make sure that your CD-ROM drivers are current. If you continue to have trouble, please contact us for further assistance.

Q: The Frontiers files will not fit the corresponding MHM relief maps.

A: Frontiers masks, EPS or Freehand files are designed to fit the HIGH resolution version only of the relief maps. In addition, please check carefuuly to make sure you are using the same NUMBER map for both the relief and outline map!

Q: The Frontiers EPS map files we made in Illustrator were blurred when opened in Photoshop.

A: You should save the map file as an Illustrator file - absolutely not as an EPS file. When you open in Photoshop you will a dialog box with a number of options.

Q: Cannot read Illustrator files from the MHM Frontiers disc.

A: Make sure you have Illustrator 5.0 (Mac) or 4.01 (Windows) or higher for Mountain High Maps Version 1. For MHM Version 2, you will need Illustrator 5.5 (Mac). Earlier versions of Illustrator will not read files created from the later versions of Illustrator.

Q: In Illustrator for Windows, all the layers come in as one layer. Is there a way to separate?

A: Yes and no - unfortunatly Adobe have not advanced the Windows Illustrator beyond version 4.01 for a long time and the layers feature found on Macintosh Illustrator does not exist in Windows. A new release to take care of this problem is anticipated in 1996. If you have to use the combined layer your only option is to select and delete unwanted objects - use shift-click to select multiple items. Windows FreeHand 5.0 does have full independent layer control capability.

Q: Cannot read the Windows MHM V.1 Frontiers files 401AUS (Australia) country files.

A: Contact us to request download of the replacement files.

Q: I opened the Frontiers mask and the borders look like unconnected sticks.

A: This is because your screen display is at a lower resolution than the map image. When you zoom in you will find the map image resolves itself and the map borders form a continous path.

Q: In Illustrator, can I “fill” an area such as a country or a state?

A: Not immediately. You will have to join the multiple paths that usually make up the outline of a country or state -or- use the TIFF mask in Photoshop to fill the area before exporting the image to Illustrator for further customization. Reason: The EPS outline maps are of a very high quality and would exceed the number of points permitted by Illustrator for output. As Illustrator continues to update, the number of points it can handle in a fill continues to increase so check on the latest version for your platform.

Q: When I increase the font size of the Illustrator country or city names, they get truncated.

A: Illustrator does not increase the name box on a global edit change. You will first have to make each name box bigger by resizing the country name layer to achieve the approximate font point size increase, then, relocate the country name to their correct position. Another alternative..... Firstly check font size of text you wish to increase (let us here do town names - 5pt) select all the text to need to increase font size of. Then from OBJECT > TRANSFORM > EACH you can enter a SCALE of a % value that will increase type to a size GREATER than that which you finally require (here lets say 210%). ALL the selected names will enlarge without text overun boxes, then just enter required font size (say 10pt).

Q: How do I crop out a selected area within an Illustrator file and include the TIFF relief map for the selected area?

Q: Is there a way to modify country masks so that they join without the two pixel border gap using Photoshop?

A: Yes, there are a couple of suggested procedures: First method : Open first country mask, change to grayscale. Make new channel (#2), copy and paste first country into this channel. Delete first country from Black channel (#1), then LOAD channel #2 into Black channel (thus first country now appears in Black channel as marching ants). Via MODIFY, EXPAND selection by ONE PIXEL. DELETE selected country area with white and deselect. Create new channel (#3), open second choice country and copy/paste into channel #3. LOAD channel #3 into Black channel. Via MODIFY, EXPAND selection ONE pixel, then DELETE selected country area with white and deselect. Continue this until all chosen countries completed. Then create one further channel and into this copy/paste the OCEAN mask. LOAD Ocean mask into Black channel, select INVERSE and DELETE selected area with Black. This will give you Countries fill area WITHOUT the two pixel border line between them and yet retain the correct coastline. Second method : Edit the relevant BORDER mask (using, for example, the eraser tool to remove sections of border as required) and add this to the selected countries.

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