A very biased reply, but consider the tools that have been developed as part of the OpenStreetMap project:

Osmarender is a rule based render that produces very nice looking SVGs from OSM format XML.

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Osmarender

There is also a project to produce a PDF atlas from the data:

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/PDF_atlas

The caveat of course is that these tools are currently configured to work with the OSM XML format:

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/XML_Schema

However, the format is pretty simple and the OSM trac:

http://trac.openstreetmap.org/browser

contains utilities to convert to different formats.

I'd be interested to know what you guys think of the output of Osmarender in my opinion, its one of the most impressive rule based map renering engines that I have seen.

Hope this helps a bit,

Nickb

On 9/28/06, Matthew Perry <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Bryce,

On 9/27/06, Bryce Nesbitt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> How do folks prepare printed maps?  Meaning maps meant for .pdf or
> direct printing use?
>
> I'd like to produce a few thousand a month, centered and zoomed on the
> recipient's home address, with some custom icons and graphics.  What
> tools might work, and are they open-source, free, closed-source, paid?
> What's the startup investment?
>

I've had good luck producing dynamic pdf maps with all open source
tools. Mapserver or Mapnik to render the data, ReportLab to construct
the pdf elements, Matplotlib to render graphics and charts, all
accessed through a python script that can handle the details
(geocoding, setting extents, etc).

--
Matthew T. Perry
GIS Analyst / Software Engineer
National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS)
work: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
web: http://www.perrygeo.net
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