----------------------------Original message----------------------------
 
               State University of New York at Stony Brook
                       Stony Brook, NY 11794-3331
 
                                            David Y Allen
                                            Library-Reference
                                            516 632-7110
                                            23-Jul-1996 10:05am EDT
FROM:  DYALLEN
TO:    Remote Addressee                     ( [log in to unmask] )
 
Subject: Maps in CIA World Factbook CD
 
        John Stevenson's questions about the resolution of the maps in the new
CD-ROM version of the CIA World Factbook prompted me to take a quick look at
the image files using HiJaak Pro.
 
        It turns out that the maps are all low-resolution TIFF images, which
are stored in their own sub-directory.  There are two types of images--black
and white, and color.  The black and white images are of very simple maps and
can be read without difficulty.  The color reference maps are indeed created at
too low a resolution to be of much use--whole letters in the legend and smaller
place names are represented by two or three pixels.  The problem is not with
your computer.  There is no way this situation can be imroved upon except by
reissuing the CD with images scanned at a higher resolution.
 
        Probably the images were scanned at such a low resolution for one of
two reasons.  Either there was not enough room on the CD-ROM for the large
files that high resolution images would require.  Or the makers of the CD did
not want to require users to scroll through the maps.  I would opt for
maps that could be either be scrolled or zoomed in on to get more detail.  It
seems pointless to me to put maps on a CD that are of such low resolution that
they are nearly useless.
 
        I believe that higher resolution images of many of these maps can be
found among the CIA maps scanned in at the University of Texas at Austin.
(http:www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/Map_collection.html).  The
address of this URL is case sensitive.