It's a steep $99 MSRP for the National Geographic software, but if you catch a good sale at REI, Amazon, or use online GPS retailers (, etc.), you can score a good deal and shave $20-30 off the list price. And if you have a cable for your GPS you can even upload/download waypoints you have created on the software. Use Simple GIS Plugins for additional features such as Territory Mapping or publishing Web Mapping applications. Locate & download data using the built in USGS data wizard. Easily add multiple layers, each with it's own custom legend and symbology. In fact, I have a somewhat older version of Topo! (waiting for an upgrade CD to arrive) and the new version might be improved as far as the interface goes.īoth can print good maps, just add a color printer. Simple GIS Client supports thematic mapping. National Geographic's offering is essentially scanned in 1:24K USGS maps and is MUCH more detailed as far as topography, trails, rivers, lakes, streams, etc.ĭeLorme's user interface is a little nicer, but National Geographic's works fine once you get the hang of it.

I have both programs, and by far, if you're gonna use it for navigation while hiking, etc., buy the National Geographic Topo! software.ĭeLorme's offering is nice, but is based only on 1:100K scale USGS maps.

Expert gps mapping software