Mapdiva, LLC

Maps are tremendous genealogical tools to help build a more comprehensive understanding of what life was like for your ancestors, looking at locations, migration routes, political boundaries, and more. Custom maps let you personalize the historical geography and highlight features relevant to family reports, documents, and photographs.

Here is an example of a family history map made with Ortelius showing the northeast Italian region of Udine (c. 1910). Click here to view a PDF export of the finished map in all its glory. Read more »

About This Particular Macintosh awards Ortelius map illustration software a rating of “Excellent” in their recent review. About This Particular Macintosh (ATPM) is a monthly Internet magazine created to celebrate the personal computing experience on the Apple Macintosh. The ATPM review included testing a wide assortment of Ortelius features, particularly the versatility of pre-packaged map templates. Ortelius receives the highest rating based on the overall usage, purpose, and documentation of the vector-based cartography software for Mac OS X.

Their conclusion? “Mapdiva has a winner on its hand. For now, Ortelius has found a niche market to fill. There are some Mac map-making programs out there, but none in the price range or that possess the features found in Ortelius. With the specific map tools found in Ortelius, it is easy to make maps, whether from templates or imported bitmaps, or even if you have to start with a blank page. You can take mapping even further by importing shapefiles, many of which are freely available on the Web. If you have a mapping need, Ortelius makes an excellent choice.” In his evaluation of Ortelius, reviewer Linus Ly continues, ”there is much potential in using Ortelius as an educational tool.”

Softpedia awards Ortelius map illustration software 4-stars, with its highest ratings for user interface and features. Softpedia reviewers thoroughly test software products following a series of characteristics and parameters, starting from the installation of the product and to the help system, with ratings based on aspects such as how well organized and intuitive is the products user interface and how useful and well implemented is the product’s feature set.

Softpedia’ Mac Editor, Alexandru Tanase, notes, “There are a lot of fine things about Ortelius. Fi[r]st of all, Ortelius comes with a lot of templates that can be used at any time. Also, Ortelius is very easy to use, has a simple interface, and most of the tools you need are available in the main screen. The graphics are good, the maps look great, and really challenge you to use the program and give it your best in order to create a work of art.”

Their conclusion? “If you like drawing maps, or you do this at the office on a regular basis, be sure to use or just give Ortelius a try. You may find that even the most difficult maps can be created in a record time with no headaches. So, if you are a young cartographer, I truly recommend this program. Give it a try and you won’t be disappointed.”

Mapdiva is pleased to announce the completely revised Getting Started With Ortelius workbook (6.77MB), including hands-on tutorials and demo files, is now available. Read more »