Global Mapper is a

geographic information system A geographic information system (GIS) consists of integrated computer hardware and Geographic information system software, software that store, manage, Spatial analysis, analyze, edit, output, and Cartographic design, visualize Geographic data ...

(GIS) software package currently developed by Blue Marble Geographics that runs on

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

. The GIS software competes with

ESRI Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., doing business as Esri (), is an American Multinational corporation, multinational geographic information system (GIS) software company headquartered in Redlands, California. It is best known for ...

GeoMedia Hexagon Geospatial's (a division of Intergraph Corporation) GeoMedia Professional is a geographic information system (GIS) management solution for map generation and the analysis of geographic information with smart tools that capture and edit ...

Manifold System Manifold System is a geographic information system (GIS) software package developed by Manifold Software Limited that runs on Microsoft Windows. Manifold System handles both vector and raster data, includes spatial SQL, a built-in Internet Map Se ...

, and MapInfo GIS products. Global Mapper handles both vector, raster, and elevation data, and provides viewing, conversion, and other general GIS features. It is most notably known for its support of over 300 different file formats ranging from .laz to Geotiffs. Global Mapper has an active user community with a mailing list and online forums.

History

In 1995 the

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an government agency, agency of the United States Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geograp ...

was in need of a Windows viewer for their data products, Mike Childs, intern at the time developed the dlgv32 application for viewing their DLG (Digital Line Graph) vector data products. Between 1995 and 1998 the dlgv32 application was expanded to include support for viewing other

data products, including DRG (topographic maps) and DEM (digital elevation model) and SDTS-DLG and SDTS-DEM data products. The development process is described in detail in the

paper titled 'A Programming Exercise'. In 1998 the

released the source code for dlgv32 v3.7 to the public domain. In 2001, the source code for dlgv32 was further developed by Mike into the commercial product dlgv32 Pro v4.0 and offered for sale via the internet. Later that same year the product was renamed to '
Global Mapper
'' and become a commercial product of the company Global Mapper Software LLC. Mike capitalized on this opportunity and acted as the salespers
,
developer and tech support for almost a decade. On November 2, 2011 Blue Marble Geographics, at the annual user conference, announced they had purchased Global Mapper LLC. Mike Childs joined Blue Marble Geographics after the sale, and remains a key developer and guru of the software.

Global Mapper Releases

Since the initial commercialization of the Global Mapper product in 2001, there have been yearly major product releases and numerous intermediate point releases adding additional functionality to the software. A mobile version of Global Mapper, Global Mapper Mobile, was released in 2016.

References

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External links

Global Mapper website
GIS companies GIS software