Print layouts

Design a printable page for a Felt map, such as a poster or a report figure, and export it as a PDF, PNG, or JPG.

Available on the Business and Enterprise plans. Compare plans

A print layout arranges a map on a page at the paper size you choose, with a north arrow, scale bar, legend, title, and inset maps where you want them. Felt saves the pages with the map, so you can come back and print them again. For a quick image of the current view, use Export as image.

Print a map as a PDF

1. Open the Felt menu and click File > Print…, or press Cmd+P (Mac) or Ctrl+P (Windows). The print layout editor opens, and the map switches to edit mode.

2. If the map has no pages yet, Choose a layout opens. Select a layout, such as Standard. The new page uses the current map view and includes the map's title, a legend, and a locator map.

3. With nothing on the page selected, select a Page size in the panel on the right, and set Format to PDF.

4. Click Export at the bottom of the panel. The file downloads to your browser's downloads folder.

Keep the tab visible until the download starts. Felt saves your pages with the map as you work.

Each export saves the open page as one file. For a multi-page PDF, export each page and combine the files in a PDF tool. The PDF contains a raster image of the page, so its lines and text can't be edited in a vector editor.

Add a north arrow, scale bar, legend, and title

Use a print layout to place a north arrow, scale bar, legend, and title on the page. The live map and Export as image have no north arrow. On the live map, the compass appears only while the map is rotated, and the scale bar stays at the bottom left.

1. In the print layout, select a map view on the page.

2. In the panel, under Show, turn on North arrow and Scale bar. They appear along the bottom of the map view's frame.

3. Optional: In the toolbar at the top of the editor, click Legend, and drag the legend into place. Hover over an icon to see its name.

4. Optional: Click Text, click the page where you want the title, and type a word, such as Title. An empty text item disappears when you click away from it.

5. Optional: In the panel, under Tokens, click Add token > Map title. Felt adds {{ map.title }} after your word, and the page shows the map's current title. Delete the word to show only the title.

Layouts such as Standard already include the map's title.

The north arrow rotates with the map view and has no letter. To label it "N", add a text item beside it. The scale bar uses your selected units. To switch between miles and kilometers, open the Felt menu on the map and click View > Units > US or Metric.

Set the paper size and orientation

A print layout's page settings appear in the panel on the right when nothing on the page is selected.

Setting	Options
Page size	Letter, 11 × 17, A4, or A3 in portrait or landscape; Custom… for any width and height from 1 to 100 in
Units	Inches, centimeters, millimeters, or pixels
Format	PDF, PNG, or JPG
DPI	150, 300 (the default), or 600

When you change the page size, the items on the page resize to fit.

Print a large poster

A print layout page can measure up to 100 inches on each side. For a size such as 24 × 36 in or 4 × 8 ft, use Page size > Custom….

• An exported image can be up to 16,384 px wide. If the page is too large for the DPI you chose, Felt exports at the highest DPI within the limit and shows a message above Export. Use PDF or PNG for large pages, because JPG has lower size limits.

• A 1 px line on screen prints about 0.26 mm wide. For a print viewed from a distance, make lines thicker and labels larger in the layer's style. See Style vector layers.

• To print in strips on a smaller plotter, tile the PDF in your printing software.

Add an inset or locator map

• Second map view: shows separate areas, such as Alaska and Hawaii beside the contiguous United States. In the toolbar, click Map, then double-click the new view to pan and zoom it. Press Esc when you're done.

• Locator: shows a map view's extent outlined on a small reference map. In the toolbar, click Locator, then select the map view in Target map.

To copy a map view, right-click it and click Duplicate, or select it and press Cmd+D (Mac) or Ctrl+D (Windows). To choose the layers a map view shows, select it and pick them in Layers in the panel on the right. A legend lists the layers shown in the map view selected in its Target map, or in the page's first map view if none is selected. To leave a layer out of the legend but keep it on the map, see Hide a layer from the legend.

Drag an item to move it, and drag its handles to resize it.

Add a logo or title block

1. In the print layout toolbar, click Image and select your logo file, or drag the file onto the page.

2. Optional: Click Section and drag a rectangle for a title block background. Sections sit behind other items.

3. Optional: Add text items. Use the Map description and Current date tokens to include those values in the printout.

A print layout page doesn't add the Felt logo or data attribution. If your basemap or data needs a credit, add it in a text item.

To reuse the arrangement on other maps, save it as a layout. In the pages sidebar, open the page's ··· menu and click Save layout. Enter a name and click Save layout. Everyone in the workspace can start a page from it.