Thank you so much for the help. That makes a lot of sense, Open Data Commons seems like a great option for simple screen shots without copyright issues. According to the licensing, (if I'm not mistaken) if I pay the $5 a month for the business google maps I'm allowed to use screenshots in business related whatever for up to 5000 prints which is way less than I need. I had no idea that tracing was off limits though.
As far as everything else, maybe I'm just making it more complicated than it is, but those seem like quite a few steps for what I need. In the example I attached, I assumed (maybe incorrectly?) that those guys must be using something pretty simple where they just plug in the address for the area, size it up, and paste in the icons. Maybe copy the screenshot into a vector graphics software to finish up the icons. Most of the maps I'm doing will literally be used to get people to worksite and then tossed at the end of the day. Speed is the key, since they are onto a new location almost every day. So while I'd obviously prefer them to look decent, the time is by far the prioritiy and the fewer steps the better. I'd love to know what they are using, or something that might perform the same function.
Topological is great to know. Something new every day haha. I actually found a more specific example of what I'm looking for here: Add Driving Directions to Web & Mobile Applications with Bing Maps According to this site MSN maps before it became Bing maps used to allow you to easily make these "back of napkin" line maps, but its obviously completely stripped from their new site. I would seriously pay a few hundred for a program that could allow me just plug in two addressed and get an automated map like the ones shown in the link (and heck, if it could not look like 2002 even better). It would seriously save me dozens of hours a week. I've been using illustrator to create the stick topolographic direction maps and it's like pulling teeth because of the massive time suck.
Thanks in advance!
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