{"id":1244,"date":"2013-10-23T15:58:41","date_gmt":"2013-10-23T19:58:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/noaacoastsurvey.wordpress.com\/?p=1244"},"modified":"2013-10-23T15:58:41","modified_gmt":"2013-10-23T19:58:41","slug":"noaa-nautical-charts-now-available-as-free-pdfs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/noaa-nautical-charts-now-available-as-free-pdfs\/","title":{"rendered":"NOAA nautical charts now available as free PDFs"},"content":{"rendered":"

In case you missed it, yesterday we announced an end to government printing of lithographic nautical charts, effective April 13. Lithographs are part of Coast Survey\u2019s proud heritage, since we started using that printing process for mass-producing charts for the Civil War, and it will be hard to see the era end. (See NOAA announces end of traditional paper chart<\/a>.) While lithographic printing is scheduled to stop, however, the public will continue to be able to purchase NOAA paper charts as up-to-date print-on-demand products<\/a>.
\nAs one product ends, another begins. We also announced yesterday that our latest addition to the nautical charting portfolio is the new Portable Document Format (PDF) nautical chart<\/a>, which provides up-to-date navigation information in this universally available file type. Initially, the PDF nautical charts will be available for a three-month trial, from October 22, 2013, to January 22, 2014.
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\nFor the trial period, Coast Survey is providing about a thousand high-resolution printable nautical charts\u2014almost the entire NOAA suite of charts\u2014as PDF files. The PDF nautical charts, which are almost exact images of the traditional charts currently printed by lithography, are free.
\nWe are trying this as a trial so we will have an opportunity to hear from the public and evaluate usage. Does the boating community find the charts useful? Is there a better way to provide these free products? Should we continue the new service?
\nJust as with Print-on-Demand<\/a> (POD) and NOAA raster navigational charts<\/a> (NOAA RNC\u00ae), PDF nautical charts are updated weekly and include all of the latest critical chart corrections. These files can be printed or viewed depending on the customer\u2019s choice.
\n(NOTE: For mariners using paper charts to meet chart carriage requirements under federal regulations, only printed charts provided by NOAA-certified POD providers will meet U.S. requirements when the traditional lithographic nautical charts are no longer available. POD charts meet stringent print standards and can be recognized by an official certification of authenticity printed on the chart<\/i>.)
\nKey features of the PDF nautical chart<\/b><\/p>\n