From Google Earth to a Finished Map: How to change KML to SHP files into a finished map for free

Note: This is one way Catholicgauze discovered to make “professional”-looking maps. If you have your own way, feel free to comment and share!

As part of my efforts to eventually get my writings on the Oregon Trail published, I have been creating maps. However, as a poor person, most cartographic programs were beyond my reach. By scouring the internet, though, I found a way to make maps for free. All one needs is a little time and several easy-to-use freeware programs.

The programs I used for the project were:

• Google Earth
• KML2Shp
• Forestry GIS
• Paint.NET (or any other drawing program)

So here was my train of thought as I worked. I needed to make a map showing the Oregon Trail going through modern-day states. I wanted to do everything myself, and on some things I had no choice. To my knowledge, there was no Oregon Trail SHP file available before I made mine.

First, I created the states. With Google Earth, I used the “Add Polygon” tool to draw the various states. After that, I drew the Oregon Trail according to paper maps I had. To do this, I used the “Add Path” tool. Finally, I made polygons over popular sites along the trail, such as Fort Laramie.

When I was pleased with the creation, I saved all the state and site polygons, along with the Oregon Trail path, as KML files.

Next, I loaded all the KML files one by one into KML2Shp and converted them into the standard GIS SHP file format. It was a fairly straightforward process. However, some installations of the program failed to load all the necessary BPL files. If this happened, the needed files could be downloaded from the program’s old library page.

So now I had all our manually created files in SHP format. I used Forestry GIS (fGIS) to load each file as a layer. I then created a buffer to enlarge the trail and make it more visible. I followed the same basic step to make the locations easier to see. As a final step, I labeled the locations.

At this point, I had the map almost complete. I did the final touch-ups in Paint.NET. A simple Print Screen, followed by paste and crop, gave me the map on a white backdrop. I adjusted the tilt slightly and added a title at the bottom using the text tools.

With that, I was done and my “professional” map — big quotation marks needed — was complete.

So that was Catholicgauze’s long route for making maps. I would also like to thank Free GeoTools for pointing out KML2Shp.

How to Do the Same Thing Today

The basic idea behind this 2007 workflow still works, but the process can now be considerably simpler. Google Earth can still export geographic features as KML, while a modern free GIS application such as QGIS can handle most of the conversion, styling and final map production that once required several separate programs.

A current version of the workflow would look like this:

1. Create or trace the required points, paths and polygons in Google Earth.
2. Export the geographic features as a KML file.
3. Open the KML data in QGIS.
4. If SHP is specifically required, export the relevant layer as an ESRI Shapefile.
5. Style the lines, polygons and point features directly in QGIS.
6. Add labels, a title, scale bar or legend where they genuinely help the map.
7. Create the final layout in QGIS and export the finished map as an image or PDF.

Google Earth still supports exporting projects and geographic features as KML. QGIS, meanwhile, supports established vector formats such as ESRI Shapefile and uses GeoPackage as its default vector-data format. For a new project, GeoPackage will often be a better choice than creating multiple Shapefile components unless compatibility with older GIS software is required.

So the 2007 chain of Google Earth → KML → KML2Shp → fGIS → Paint.NET can now usually be simplified to something closer to:

Google Earth → KML → QGIS → Finished Map

The Mapping Principle Has Not Changed

The software has changed considerably, but the central idea behind the original tutorial remains useful: geographic features created in Google Earth do not have to stay in Google Earth.

They can be exported as geographic data, opened in GIS software, styled as separate layers and turned into a publication-ready map.

The Oregon Trail example required a surprisingly long chain of free programs in 2007. Today, the same job is easier, but the underlying workflow — create the geography first, then turn it into a clear finished map — is essentially the same.