How it works

Every print starts from a real survey. We build each map from the publishing agency's own lake bathymetry — the Minnesota DNR's survey for a Minnesota lake, the Texas Water Development Board's hydrographic survey for a Texas one, NOAA's own bathymetry for a Great Lake — the same shoreline and depth contours the survey produced, drawn as art: the water in graded depth bands, the islands cut back to paper, the shoreline in a single fine line. You pick your lake, choose a palette, and add up to two lines of your own words. The preview you see is generated by the same code that produces the file the printer receives, so nothing changes between the screen and the paper. Every print carries the survey source and the year it was made, right in the margin. Some of these surveys are decades old — Lake Minnetonka's dates from 1949 — and we would rather tell you that up front than have you find out afterwards. It is an accurate record of a lake at a moment in time. It is not a navigation chart, and the art says so. Prints are made to order by a print-on-demand lab and shipped directly to you. We hold no stock, and nothing is printed until the order has been checked by a person.