GPSy Pro^TM adds BSB Chart support to GPSy's already rich support of most popular raster map formats. GPSy Pro supports BSB format 1.0, 2.x, and 3.x nautical charts from MapTech, NOAA, and NDI. This page describes some of GPSy Pro's new features compared against GPSy. If you aren't already familiar with GPSy, go to the GPSy Screenshots Page. Basically, GPSy Pro adds BSB chart support, great circle routing, and more precise control of imaging quality than GPSy. GPSy Pro is designed primarily for boaters and for people who work with large or complex (skewed/distorted) map images.

What the screenshots below can't give you is a sense of how fast GPSy Pro is. The BSB files are all extremely large (over 20-50 megabytes uncompressed), yet GPSy Pro can easily scroll them in real-time on relatively low-powered machines. The ability to fine-tune the cache parameters gives you additional control over the balance between speed, resolution, and memory usage.

The screenshot below is of a section of the Sandy Hook area from a BSB format nautical chart. It shows the clarity of the BSB format charts. Charts are provided with depth information as well as standard LORAN notes, and the normal features you expect from NOAA charts. In the screen shot below, we asked GPSy Pro to overlay routing information for two points on the chart, giving their distance and bearing from each other as well as from the GPS position (offscreen). [Click image to view at full size]

All of GPSy Pro's routing and distance calculations are done using Great Circles. This allows the long-distance boater a more accurate idea of the route the boat will take. For example, who would have guessed the most direct route from Hawaii to England takes you over Canada near the Artic region? We also use the Department of Defence World Magnetic Model Epoch 1995 to ensure accurate magnetic declination information across the entire planet and you can request that all routes use magnetic compass bearings. [Click image to view at full size]

Note that all GPSy Pro windows are MacOS 8.5 theme compatible, with proportional scrollbars and the optional double-arrows on each end. We also support theme sounds, including "three-dimensional" sound imaging while scrolling left to right. This is from a NOAA map of the Bering Sea area (border between Russia and the United States; near Alaska). [Click image to view at full size]

GPSy Pro (build 082) prints extended map information for calibrated maps. This includes map 'ticks' on all four corners indicating the corner coordinates (using a selectable coordinate system, of course); map width and height (in user-selected units); the coordinates for the map center; and the map datum. This nautical chart of the Rhode Island area was in BSB format and was printed from GPSy Pro (into a PDF file which we then took a screenshot of). [Click image to view at full size]

GPSy Pro also provides detailed information on the chart file itself, including the chart datum, display datum, calibration type, calibration coefficients, estimated calibration error, file and cache statistics (displayed below), copyright and disclaimer information. [Click image to view at full size]

GPSy Pro adds one main menu to GPSy, the Display Menu. Note that since this is still a pre-release, not all of the items have been enabled yet. GPSy Pro also modifies the Print menu item so that you are able to print just the section of the map that's visible. The "High Resolution Refresh" option is a unique feature that allows you to use low-resolution map caches for blindingly fast scrolling in the main map window. When you settle on a spot and need to see the absolute limits of the map resolution, a high resolution refresh will redraw just that segment using the highest possible resolution. This makes opening 50 megabyte BSB files on a 16 megabyte PowerBook 230 possible.

GPSy Pro also adds some new items to the "File" menu, allowing you to print map subsections at full quality (the "Print Window" feature) as well as exporting map images with overlays to JPEG/JFIF files.

GPSy Pro adds one new preference panel, the Memory Usage Preference Panel. We'd have called it the Image Quality and Memory Usage Pref panel, but that title is too long.

The Memory Usage Preference Panel allows you to have unprecendented control over the memory location, size, quality, dithering, and Palette status of your opened charts. [Click on image to enlarge]

Copyright (C) 1997-2006 by Karen Nakamura. All rights reserved. GPSy^TM and GPSy.COM^TM are registered trademarks and GPSy Pro^TM and GPSyLink^TM are trademarks of Karen Nakamura. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Mention of a third-party's product does not represent endorsement of or by that product.

This page was last updated on May 8, 1999. We've had hits since September 28th, 1998.