# MAPublisher Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra > Is MAPublisher the right GIS solution for you? Explore 46 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice. Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/176100/MAPublisher/reviews --- MAPublisher 4.6 (46) [View alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/176100/MAPublisher/alternatives/) Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) * * * Last updated March 13th, 2026 # Reviews of MAPublisher Ease of use 4.0 Customer Service 4.6 ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 1-25 of 46 Reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use Stuart G. Freelance Cartographer Used the software for: 2+ years ### "I am very happy with the software, it works well." June 6, 2018 5.0 It allows for accurate mapping with the full design capabilities of Illustrator. Pros The ability to work with georeferenced data directly inside Illustrator is great. It has many useful tools and saves me a lot of time by giving me much more freedom than a standard GIS system for creating visually pleasing maps. It has basic data processing capabilities for selecting, editing and adding attributes including creating legends and map grids. Cons Some aspects of the current system can be a bit clunky or limiting but they are improving with each version. Scalebars, map grids and map themes are missing things I would find useful. Map Themes have an export option but not an import option. Scalebars and grids may need to be expanded (breaking the spatial link) to change the placement of the labels to something not available in the options. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Information Designer, Cartographer, Visual Simulation Specialist Management Consulting Used the software for: 2+ years ### "I use MAPublisher to create clean, detailed maps for environmental documents." June 11, 2018 5.0 I'm able to create maps as detailed as those created by our GIS team, but they're cleaner and more user-friendly than what our GIS team can make. Project managers often come to me for their maps (made using MAPublisher) instead of the GIS team, because they know my maps will look better. Pros Overall, I enjoy using MAPublisher very much. It allows me to do mapping that I can hardly imagine being able to do otherwise. It's a wonderful tool! What I like most is being able to import and manipulate very detailed GIS data and then having the unlimited design freedom of Adobe Illustrator. Cons A couple of minor quirks in the user interface I find annoying: 1) Layer Options Panel: When MAPublisher is installed, and when I create a new layer in Illustrator or modify the layer options (name, color) of an existing layer (MAP layer or not), I will click Okay to save the options, then the layer options panel appears a 2nd time and I have to click Okay again on the layer properties for the panel to go away. 2) Unwanted shift to Legend layer: When I have a legend layer in the file (typically for a scale bar), and when I'm working on some other part of the graphic (either on a MAP layer or a non-MAP layer), if I do something that causes an error, the selected layer will often shift to the legend layer, which is bothersome. That layer is usually locked once I have created the scale bar, but the active layer will occasionally move to the legend (scale bar) layer without my telling it to do so. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Designer Graphic Design Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Wish they had a tiered pricing structure for small biz / limited use" August 24, 2020 2.0 Pros Cool product that allows you to make really nice looking maps. Love the integration with Adobe. Cons Hard to learn from a design-perspective. I'm using this for a single non-profit client as a consultant and the pricing structure does not work for me. The hefty up-front price plus yearly maintenance costs (which are hidden well before you buy and realize you need them) eat up way too much budget for my non-profit clients. Couldn't there be a tiered structure for someone who only needs to create/update 1-2 maps per year? A shame given how useful this could be for small operations. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Cartographer Used the software for: 2+ years ### "MaPublisher has been my go-to mapping program for years: it enables me to make the maps I envision." June 5, 2018 5.0 The ability to create the maps I visualize. Pros Ease of editing vector data. Ease of label placement and editing. Ability to apply a variety of blending options to layers. Ease of color selection and tweaking. Really appreciate how the program integrates with Photoshop/Geographic Imager. Cons My least favorite quality has to do with Adobe Illustrator, not MaPublisher. By only being able to use one-core of the now-common, multi-core processors, Illustrator is vastly underpowered. In complex documents, it bogs down with simple label repositioning, is unable to maintain large numbers of vertices which results in abbreviated coastlines and generally odd shapes, and can be very slow. I wish I could bill Adobe for the time lost. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Co-owner Used the software for: 2+ years ### "I use it daily in my work. It's powerful and mostly intuitive to use." June 5, 2018 5.0 It allows me to do cartographic production work quickly and efficiently, paying for itself with in a couple weeks of license renewal. Pros Power and ability to process data quickly and easily. There are some cases where I use it instead of QGIS for basic geoprocessing. It's interface with Illustrator, which is my workhorse for cartographic illustration. It's a central, essential part of my workflow. Cons Cost. Expense of floating license, places where the interface does not make simple intuititve leaps or remember previous actions, adding to the number of keyclicks, especially where data processing is repeated multiple times Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Spatial Analyst and Cartographer Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "I use MapPublisher as way to bridge the gap between ArcGIS and Illustrator and I find it fantastic." June 5, 2018 4.0 I found that ability to bring static PDFs in, give them a spatial reference and extract a specific layer to be extremely useful. Pros I like the fact that I am able to import shapefiles and then easily edit them to produce a slick final product. Cons I feel that the map view interface is somewhat clunky and could be improved. I also feel that rather than georeferencing through the map view interface that a stand alone georeferencing tool might be useful. Review Source Daniela M. GIS Specialist Environmental Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Top notch company and product!" June 11, 2018 4.0 Pros My organization acquired MAPublisher to help bridge some of the work our GIS team does with our marketing team. We use this product mainly for the functionality with Illustrator and to create GeoPDF maps for the Avenza Map Store. It services our needs well in this respect and Avenza has always been a pleasure to communicate with any time we encountered issues. Cons I have found it less convenient to use with large datasets and rasters/image datasets. Navigating in the Illustrator environment can be time consuming for us non-illustrator savvy GIS users. Review Source Dorn M. Geospatial & Information Services Manager Used the software for: 2+ years ### "MAPublisher makes cartography a joy. " June 5, 2018 5.0 Easy to ensure our vector maps are styled and branded well. The outputs looka nd feel more professional than the ones coming out of ArcGIS or QGIS. Pros If you are already an Illustrator user (and you likely won't be looking at this tool if you're not), MAPublisher is super simple to use. Data layers come over smoothly and retain their attributes. Reprojecting to custom projections is simple. Outputs to a variety of formats is easy. Cons Cost, especially as a non-profit it's expensive for us - but worth it. It has a bit of a steep learning curve. Review Source Mike B. Contract Cartographer Publishing Used the software for: 2+ years ### "MAPublisher is an indispensable tool for any cartographer who designs maps in Adobe Illustrator." June 16, 2018 5.0 Allows me to take a map from start to finish without much reliance on GIS software. Pros Ease of use, especially when it comes to working with data in different projections and formats. Continued development and new features. Cons The annual maintenance fee is too expensive, especially for someone like myself who only does freelance cartography as a side job. Review Source Ben S. Project Manager Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Sales and tech support were great and easy to deal with." June 5, 2018 5.0 Ability to create dynamic maps that have tremendous levels of detail, and an abundance of information. The software makes it easy to compile varying import formats and create an appealing map export. Pros The functionality and ease of use. It is easy to get up and running with the software. There are also an abundance of options that are all available at your finger tips to expand your use, but these do not overwhelm the beginner user. Cons The export process to jpg could be slightly improved. This process is not as seamless as it should be, but overall nothing too concerning. Review Source RG Roger G. IFR Procedure Designer Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Mostly positive. Good customer service. " June 8, 2018 5.0 Pros Geo referencing on digital maps is great. Pins work awesome. Ease of selecting contour lines, sorting obstacle data. Very flexible in what you can do. Cons No google maps for georefeferencing. Can be a complicated process to georeference a photo flipping back and forth between image and software. Would be nice to be able to make this process simpler. Review Source FB Fraser B. Urban Designer Used the software for: 2+ years ### "It saves a ton of time integrating GIS & CAD Files into Illustrator." June 5, 2018 4.0 Pros Using Illustrator to develop maps means they'll look great. The copy features from other Mappublisher maps means no need to redo styles every time. Just knowing that GIS and CAD files are accurately scaled means I can do my work and know that it's scaled and sized correctly. Cons The legend tool only does one style type at a time (i.e. can't do a legend that includes symbols, lines and areas... You have to do each one separately. The GIS functionality is limited compared to other GIS programs. You can do simple things, but don't expect this to replace a full GIS program. Review Source CP Clint P. Senior Designer / Cartographer Used the software for: 2+ years ### "ive used this for over 10 years and it is always improving and moving forward. its great." June 5, 2018 5.0 Pros It has become very powerful and integrated well with AI. it is intuitive and easy to use espeically now with the new plugins. Cons The only cons are in AI. it needs to be rebuild to handle larger data sets as it spazzes out when too many nodes are brought in. Review Source LA Laurie A. Data supply Government Administration Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great product to use !!" June 5, 2018 4.0 East of use and great outputs Pros Easy functional product which takes a common sense approach in its use, resulting in great a output Cons The fact that your license is only tied to one PC. In this day and age where people can work remotely I believe the license for one user should be extended to at least 2 items (ie. PC and a laptop) Review Source HA Helen A. Geological Consultant Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "MAPublisher makes Illustrator workeable. The customer support is excellent!" June 13, 2018 5.0 Meant I could use Illustrator for my technical work Pros Making Illustrator geologically friendly; Response time to any queries is really fast, and the support staff provided great assistance, including making new style libraries for me! Cons Still a little difficult to load up geological style libraries, but that may be a function of Illustrator! Review Source JJ Jason J. Chief Stan/Eval Pilot Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great software for our use case making navigation maps for USAF initial flight training." June 5, 2018 5.0 It is integral to our workflow. Pros MaPublisher allows complete control over the appearance and styling of each project in Adobe Illustrator. Cons MaPublisher requires a very capable PC to process large projects with hundreds of layers and raster images. The same can be said of working with large GeoTiffs in Geographic Imager. Review Source RD Robert D. Cartographer Design Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great for importing all sorts of GIS map data into Illustrator, complete with attributes!" June 11, 2018 4.0 This is my work-horse software for making maps every day. It lets me import all sorts of map data, with attributes, and then process the features using those attributes. After years of using Arc and other software this meets my needs almost exactly. Pros Ability to read all sorts of GIS data formats, and match them together. Crop on import from GeoDatabase is a huge time saver - as is the crop function tool for other uses. Labeling options are fairly robust (using the optional LabelPro module). It is clear that this software is designed by and for real map makers, and they have added many very useful features over the years. When I first started using it (after years of using Arc products - and all sorts of in-house tricks to get decent productivity using it), it felt like someone had designed MAPublisher just for me! Cons Occasionally it freezes on me, so I have learned to save frequently and even quit Illustrator before doing big complex tasks such as joining features by attribute (for example road segments by road name), or big labeling tasks (I'm talking about placing 5,000+ street names!). I took their local 2 day training course, and would give that about 1 star... they just went through the product manual and exercises page by page. For example they never really explain why you might want to set up a layer for labels before running the labeling module (so that you can make those labels 'obstacles' to other label placement), or how many of the tools interact. But their tech support is very responsive, always getting back to me quickly and listening to suggestions. Review Source GH Grant H. Cartographer Education Management Used the software for: 2+ years ### "I can quickly make a professional map for an array of applications in education." June 7, 2018 5.0 Making beautiful maps without having to export from ArcGIS. Having everything georeferenced (including old files that were scanned in) is an incredible selling point. Pros Its compatibility with a wide array of geospatial files types is a huge plus. Most commonly .shp files, but I find that I will often quickly whip up an excel spreadsheet to plot various cities or other POIs just because the software makes it easy to import CSVs. Many of the tools I used in ArcGIS are available (spatial selection, attribute selection, etc) so it's nice that there isn't a learning curve there. Last but not least, I love how easy it is to theme and label maps with the built-in tools based on attributes or other metadata. Cons Discoverability and learning. Sometimes it's difficult to get a comprehensive answer from a Google search on how to perform a task (I remember specifically with the georeferencing tool). This might not be fair, but I am stiff baffled why MAPublisher cant work with image files like it does with vector data (in the same vein as Geographic Imager). I'd pay more for a more comprehensive product if it had this capability built-in (though maybe not any more what geographic imager costs). I suspect there might be technical limitations to this, even though MAPublisher recognizes image files. Review Source RE Rosalyn E. Digital Publisher Used the software for: 2+ years ### "The only decent GIS mapping software I know of that can be run on a Mac. Masses of functionality." June 5, 2018 5.0 Pros It's an Illustrator plugin, which can pull GIS mapping data along with attributes straight into Illustrator (a major vector artwork program) without having to use a convoluted workflow such as with exporting from QGIS into Illustrator. There are highly advanced features for manipulating projections and a host of other specialist mapping requirements, including a separate map labelling program called LabelPro, which has been very useful once I'd finally grasped how best to use it. There are still many features I have not really explored. It has transformed my mapping workflow, and I don't know what I'd do without MaPublisher now. Well I would probably have to buy a PC - ugh - and run a rival program like Arc in order to make a complex map. Customer support from Avenza has been good so far on a few queries. Cons It is quite expensive software, especially when buying the annual updates & support - more costly than Illustrator. And obviously when you compare with QGIS which is free, but of course without any support or the convenience of being able to manipulate data within a proper vector artwork program used by graphics industry professionals. It's quite a learning curve (though not as big a learning curve as QGIS, much of which is for GIS techies, not designers). It wasn't able to handle as much data at once as QGIS. Importing an OS buildings layer, for example, was crashing my Mac. However, once I'd upgraded my Mac with a lot more RAM, I could open a massive map artwork file with millions of anchor points and paths, and work reasonably fast without Illustrator freezing. Review Source JR Julie R. Owner Recreational Facilities and Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "We have had a good experience with MaPublisher for the last 7 years. " June 6, 2018 4.0 Our entire business is to generate high-quality trail maps for Colorado. We couldn't have done this in a costly and efficient manner without MaPublisher. Pros 1\. The layers 2. The ability to import from a variety of files types (.shp, .gpx, etc) 3. The good tech support when encountering a problem. 4. The contour labeling and knock-outs. 5. The ability to easily rescale a map to our specifications. Cons 1\. We would like a feature that allows you to calculate elevation gain/loss and trail lengths based on topography 2. We are just learning more about the graticules features. It seems a bit complex and was difficult to figure out at first, and we are still trying to figure some things out. 3. When you rescale a map the symbols (in the symbol tool box), etc are no longer the correct size. 4. Would like the ability to generate contour lines based on USGS DEM files. Review Source AW Andy W. GIS & Cartography Manager Used the software for: 2+ years ### "If you are going to make high quality maps, particularly for print (or PDF), MAPublisher is vital." June 7, 2018 4.0 I'm able to make maps at a level not previously possible with standard GIS software. Pros It allows fine-tuning of maps that is currently simply not available in ArcGIS Desktop or ArcGIS Pro. Simple effects like shadows and gradients are much easier to accomplish using Illustrator tools in MAPublisher, and it allows so much more text and layout options, particularly when combined with Adobe InDesign. If you are doing cartographic quality work, there's really nothing better out there. Cons Out of the box, I'd like to see most of Esri's standard color swatches and symbols already in place and preferably available in an Illustrator template that is ready to use. Some tools, like halo and knockouts are quite complex for what they do. Finally, there are strange limitations on some of the Esri import options. I have had to use the 32-bit version of Illustrator instead of 64-bit because some importers were not available (SDE GDB I believe), and some of the import options are not compatible with the new feature that automatically retrieves changes to those layers when edited elsewhere, like in ArcMap. Review Source AE AJ E. Cartographer Government Administration Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Occasionally quirky but overall AMAZING!" October 10, 2018 5.0 Overall, this is a great product with AMAZING customer service. Mostly intuitive and works well with no crashes to Illustrator. Pros I like that everything is georeferenced and changes are super easy each year. Just export a new file and style. It has streamlined my process and cut my production time in almost half. LabelPro is pretty amazing and fairly intuitive. LOVE that we can export in GeoPDF or GeoTiff, amongst other file types. Love that I can export changed data BACK out in shapefile format. Cons It is quirky at times. When exporting as an image, some of the features turned into symbols disappear, even though they are all the same type of file coming from the same source. Some of the LabelPro features (symbols for roads) are difficult to figure out. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Geospatial Instruction and Reference Specialist Higher Education Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great product that helps me easily leverage my geospatial background into real map products." June 8, 2018 5.0 Pros Takes the majority of my geospatial data workflow and puts it directly in my design software. Relieving me of needing GIS applications in most cases. Uses a maintenance model rather than a subscription model to keep it up to date. Cons Can be difficult to initially learn. The need to manually retrieve updates as opposed to an auto update is a hassle. The reliance on subscription software is huge negative and likely to be the reason I eventually stop using MP in the future. Review Source AO Alison O. Cartographer Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "MAPublisher is an incredible tool that powerfully bridges geospatial and cartographic software." June 6, 2018 5.0 Big time and stress savings, I would have such a hard time going back to not having MAPublisher enhancing my Illustrator! Pros I love that this software allows me to georeference my Illustrator map files and continue to add and work with my data long after it's been moved out of the geospatial software. It adds a capacity to AI that I didn't even know that I needed. I rarely have to even start my map files in geospatial software anymore, preferring to simply use the powerful combination of AI and MAPublisher for much of my cartographic work that doesn't require complicated geospatial analysis. Cons Any time I have found an imperfection with the software it has been speedily addressed by the Avenza team, so I have no cons! Review Source MK Michael K. cartographer/editor Publishing Used the software for: 2+ years ### "i use mapublisher and also geographic imager for importing gis data to produce maps for course books" June 6, 2018 5.0 ability to use gis data to be included in maps for books. Pros i can combine a whole range of gis data with my digital maps to produce maps to be printed in books. i can update my maps with new gis data. in many cases i use mapublisher to add geographic information to traditional digitilized maps, for example to correct the scale or the grid lines. Cons the updating process is still tricky: please realize this: to update mapublisher and also geographic imager i have to save and re-import my projections every update time. this is stil frustrating and keeps me from updating. as a customer i want all my own map projections automatically been there in the updated version. the thematic map tools could be easier to use. buidling up value classes is sometimes difficult. i have a great wish to avenza: in global projections theresult of the projection always generates a transparent globe with the hidden geographic data on the backside of the globe showing up. how about a function that eliminates the hidden parts of the map? Review Source Similar Products Featured ## Send me user reviews about this product ### Fill out the form and we'll send a list of the top-rated software based on real user reviews directly to your inbox.