NOAA will stop printing paper charts next year

[HRowland]

There is a big discussion on the ActiveCaptain Facebook page about the NOAA announcement that they will stop printing paper charts on April 13, 2014. The FAA actually prints the charts for NOAA. The FAA decided to stop doing this as a cost cutting measure.
This should not be an issue since NOAA will continue to produce the chart data and the Print On Demand providers will still be able to provide new paper charts. The digital versions will still be produced, so you can use the raster version for a paper chart look in apps such as iNavX. I would expect 3rd parties such as Maptech to continue providing their paper products. You just will not be able to walk into a store and purchase a government printed nautical chart.

NOAA is also starting an experiment providing charts that can be downloaded in PDF format.

Here is the FAQ from NOAA: http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/staf ... cement.pdf

Howard

 

[walldog]

The link to pdf charts is now active. This is a 3 month trial to see how well it is received. I think it is a great way to put most used charts on our computers. I for one hope the NOAA keeps this active. This link was hard to find so it may not be well received unless WE spread the word. These are supposed to be kept up to date, so maybe this is a good way to see if our chartplotters and iPads have current charts.

http://www.charts.noaa.gov/PDFs/PDFs.shtml

 

[RProffer]

If you want to print them full size, then you will need a large format 36" printer, about $2500.