Download Printable Contour Maps as PDF

Make a print-ready contour map of any place in Oregon from USGS 3DEP lidar elevation data: a letter-size PDF with crisp vector contour lines, a scale bar in feet or miles and a legend in feet.

What is a PDF contour map?

A PDF contour map is a finished map sheet: contour lines drawn to scale on a page, ready to print, email or open on any device. Anyone can open it; no GIS or CAD software is needed.

Because the contours are stored as vector lines rather than an image, the map stays sharp when you zoom in on screen or print it larger.

What is on the sheet

• Contour lines: colored by elevation, from blue at the lowest through green to brown at the highest.
• True proportions: the area is fitted to a US Letter page at its real shape, with north at the top.
• Scale bar: in feet for small areas and in miles for large ones.
• Legend: the contour range in feet above NAVD 88 and the number of levels.
• Location: the area’s corner coordinates (longitude, latitude) under the title.
• Source credit: a line naming the USGS 3D Elevation Program.

Software and devices that open PDF

Viewers

• Adobe Acrobat Reader: free on desktop and mobile.
• Web browsers: Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari open PDFs directly.
• Phones and tablets: the built-in viewers on iOS and Android.

Editing and markup

• Adobe Acrobat Pro: notes, highlights and measurements.
• Adobe Illustrator and Inkscape: edit the vector lines and add your own labels.
• Bluebeam Revu: markup for architects, builders and engineers.

Printing

Any home or office printer handles letter size. Print shops can print larger on plotters or on waterproof paper.

How to download a contour map as PDF

1. Open the map: go to Download Data and search for a place, address or trailhead.
2. Select the area: draw a rectangle, or click a taxlot to select the rectangle around it. The area can be up to 7.5 miles per side. A rectangle about as tall as it is wide fills a portrait page best.
3. Choose the interval in feet (1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 40, 100, 200, 500 ft):
   • 1–5 ft: a house lot or small acreage
   • 10–20 ft: hillside parcels, parks and short hikes
   • 40–100 ft: mountain areas such as Mount Hood or the Wallowas
4. Choose PDF among the contour formats.
5. Download: the contours are free to view on the map; the PDF needs a pass.
6. Print or share: print the sheet or send the file to whoever needs it.

Common uses

Hiking and trail planning

A printed contour sheet goes where phones lose signal. Hikers use one for a day in the Columbia Gorge or a loop on Mount Hood, alongside an elevation profile of the route.

Mountain biking and trail running

Riders and runners mark climbs and descents on a printed sheet of trail networks around Bend or in the Coast Range. See the mountain biking profile guide.

Planning and permit conversations

A contour sheet is an easy way to show a planner, builder or neighbor how a lot lies. What the county or city needs in an actual permit application is up to them; check with your county planning department.

Teaching

Teachers hand out contour maps of local places, from the Willamette Valley to the Cascades, to teach map reading, slope and landforms.

Client presentations

Landscape architects, builders and real estate agents bring a printed sheet to site meetings so everyone looks at the same ground.

Search and rescue

Printed sheets are easy to hand out, mark up and carry in the field alongside a team’s own maps.

Tips for printing

Choose the paper size

Letter is right for most uses. For wall maps or meetings, print at 11 × 17 or larger; the vector lines stay sharp.

Use good paper

Heavier, bright paper shows fine contour lines better. For the field, synthetic waterproof paper lasts.

Print settings

Print in color at a high-quality setting so the lightest lines do not drop out. Because the scale bar is drawn with the map, it stays correct whether you print at actual size or fit to the page.

Use the scale bar

The map is fitted to the page, so its scale depends on the size of your area. Measure distances against the scale bar rather than assuming a fixed scale. Output resolution scales with the size of the area you select. Exports are capped at 1,024 pixels on the longest side, with a floor of 3.3 ft per pixel — so a 900 ft building site is delivered at the full lidar detail, while a block 7.5 miles on a side is resampled to roughly 39 ft per pixel. Select a smaller area when you need fine detail.

Annotate

Mark routes, building sites or survey points by hand or in a PDF editor before printing a final copy.

PDF or another format?

PDF or DXF

PDF is for viewing and printing. For editing in AutoCAD or Civil 3D, download contours as DXF.

PDF or GeoJSON

PDF is a finished map. GeoJSON is raw data for GIS and web maps, with the elevation on every line.

PDF or SVG

Both are vector. PDF is a complete map sheet with a scale bar and legend; an SVG is just the lines, for design work and laser cutting.

About the data

Ground elevations on this site come from the USGS 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) seamless bare-earth model: 3.3 ft per pixel where lidar has been flown and about 33 ft per pixel elsewhere, with elevations above NAVD 88. The data is in the public domain. Most of Oregon’s lidar was flown through the Oregon Lidar Consortium, run by DOGAMI, the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries. DOGAMI reports about 99% of Oregon covered by at least one lidar project. See lidar coverage in Oregon for the project behind your area. More from the USGS 3D Elevation Program and DOGAMI’s lidar program.

Accuracy is inherited from the USGS 3DEP source and the lidar project behind it, not asserted by this tool. Where lidar exists, at 3.3 ft per pixel, vertical accuracy is that of the project: individual Oregon Lidar Consortium projects report vendor RMSE of a few inches or less in DOGAMI’s project records; for example, Metro 2014 reports about a tenth of a foot. Outside the lidar work units the seamless DEM is about 33 ft per pixel and far coarser. Every download states what share of its area fell outside the lidar work units. Values are bare-earth elevations above NAVD 88 from a digital elevation model — they exclude buildings and tree canopy and are not a substitute for a surveyed elevation where a legal or engineering decision depends on it.

Frequently asked questions

Other formats

• Contours as DXF – for AutoCAD and Civil 3D
• Contours as KML – for Google Earth
• Contours as SVG – for design and laser cutting
• Topographic maps of Oregon – making and reading topo maps
• Contour lines for Oregon – overview of every format