Mobile Location Services: The Definitive Guide

Map Image Generation

An important capability of any spatial analysis software product is the ability to generate a map. There are two primary map types: a raster map, which is a digital image often in Graphics Interchange Format (GIF), and a vector map, which is the data required for an application to properly render the map using Vector Markup Language (VML) or some other data exchange format.

For mobile location services, speed under load is usually the primary focus. However, it is still important that if a raster map image is being returned, the image be visually attractive and in the format that the user expects. The quality of the map data significantly impacts the quality of the map image, but even good map data will not compensate for ...