BING Streetmap is fuzzy

[LisaGarvey]

The BING streetmap is fuzzy. It doesn't produce a nice crisp background. Regardless of the scale or pdf dpi, the streetmap background doesn't improve (the road labels are particularly bad). Reprojecting on the fly or using it in its default coordinate system doesn't make a difference.

I have attached a sample. It is particularly noticeable when printed.
Any help would be appreciated because it is such a quick and easy way to make a vicinity map.

Thanks,
Lisa

[JoeFlannery]

Igarvey:

Are you using the ArcGIS Online/Bing/Google caching scales to view/print your map?  If you are not at the cache scale when viewing the online background rasters, ArcMap will sample up or down and render a bit fuzzy.  See attached.

[LisaGarvey]

Hi Joe,

I am using this background in ArcMap. I'm not sure that I understand the cache scale. Is that something I can set on line before clicking on it in streetmap? Or is it something I can set in ArcMap once it has come in to my layout? Please advise.

[JoeFlannery]

In ArcMap 10, click on the Scale drop-down and choose <Customize This List...> and click on the Load button, choose "ArcGIS Online/Bing Maps/Google Maps", OK.  See the screen capture that I attached in my earlier message.

For ArcMap 9.3, download the attached txt file, click on the Scale drop-down in ArcMap and choose <Customize This List...> and then click on the Load button and navigate to the txt file, click Open, click OK.

[LisaGarvey]

Can the cache scale list be modified so that it can be used at set engineering scales such as 1:12000?

[JoeFlannery]

Yes it can...

Zoom to 1:12000, click the scale window drop-down, click on <Customize This List...>, click on the Add Current button, click OK.  There it is in the list.

But, 1:12000 is not one of the ArcGIS/Bing/Google cache scales, so you will get slightly fuzzy backgrounds from those online services in your map document.

[LisaGarvey]

Can you explain what a cache scale is?

[JoeFlannery]

What is Map Caching:
http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisserver/10.0/help/arcgis_server_dotnet_help/index.html#/What_is_map_c...

ArcGIS Online moving to Google / Bing tiling scheme...:
http://blogs.esri.com/Dev/blogs/arcgisserver/archive/2009/11/20/ArcGIS-Online-moving-to-Google-_2F00...

The ESRI and Bing streets-topos-aerials-etc raster background services that you are consuming are "cached" as tiles at many scales on servers to improve performance on the client side.  These backgrounds are cached at various scales for optimum viewing of symbology, labeling and details.  One would not view a USGS 24k topo at 100k in ArcMap.  As one zooms in, one sees more detailed local data (streets for example).

If you make a map in a layout at 1:24000 with the USGS topos layer turned on as the background, it may look a bit fuzzy, because 1:24000 is between the cached scales of 1:18056 and 1:36112 and ArcMap is resampling to 24k.

[LisaGarvey]

Thanks for your help Joe. If you're looking for end user feedback, it would be very helpful for the streetmaps to be cached at standard scales such as 1:12000 or 1:24000 for use in graphics.

[JoeFlannery]

Igarvey:

I, too, used to wonder and fret a bit as to how these scales were chosen for caching raster backgrounds.  Others, sharper than I, surely spent much time thinking and researching the best scheme for viewing a variety of backgrounds at various zoom levels (country, regional, local).

However, if one compares the free online raster backgrounds provided by ESRI and Bing at various scales, the differences are subtle (see attached) depending on viewing distance.  There are so many variables to consider when producing a map product and our challenge is to make the best choices for our client�??s needs.

What is fixed and what is optional for best results?
Raster background choice
Scale
Coordinate system
Viewing distance (paper, monitor, poster, wall screen)

I�??m just happy that all these online background options are available, dependable, high quality and high performance.