Which map crop should your poster show?

Put the subject into one sentence: 'This was our first home,' 'These were our neighborhood walks,' or 'This is the city I grew up in.' That gives you a better guide than a fixed zoom level. An address needs different landmarks from a whole city.

Under '1. Place', search for a city, address, or known place and select the matching result. A place name in the poster title is just wording; it does not set the map center. Find the right place on the map first. The poster does not automatically mark a house number, so check whether the surrounding streets are enough to identify a particular building.

A first home or meeting point calls for a close view. Resist zooming in until only a short stretch of road remains. Two or three neighboring streets, a junction, or a park make the location easier to place. That context matters when the exact door is not marked on the map.

Move the map so the relevant street stays visible alongside your title and second line. If you want to color a meaningful street, check that option separately: street highlighting is available with Premium matte. A colored street is still not a house-number marker. For a private home, a neighborhood name in the text may feel more comfortable than printing the full address.

A middle-distance crop works when several memories share one area. You may want the former apartment, a park, and the route to a favorite café in one view. Include the paths between them, even if none of those places sits exactly in the center.

Look for a feature that gives the neighborhood its shape: a riverbank, large park, rail curve, or distinctive street pattern. Drag the map and compare a closer crop with a wider one. If the defining feature disappears at the edge, pull back a little. If individual streets are hard to distinguish, move in again.

A broad view can bring the center and outer districts together for a hometown or travel memory. The city boundary need not be the poster edge: a river, coastline, or several districts may make the place more recognizable than a symmetrical center. Small streets become less prominent as you zoom out. If one street is your subject, choose a closer crop. Rotate the map only if an important route fits the portrait format better that way.

Under '3. Size', choose A4, 30 × 40 cm, or 50 × 70 cm. These formats have different aspect ratios, which can change what appears at the preview edges. Find a useful view first, choose your actual print format, then check the crop again. The screen preview shows the design, not the print's real size on your wall.

Look at all four edges and the text area. A park or street close to the boundary may feel cut off. If you show text, keep the most meaningful part of the map clear of it. The map details controls let you show or hide buildings, water, and parks and green areas. Use them when a feature matters to your place or the map feels too busy.

• Address: can you see the street and enough neighboring roads?
• Neighborhood: can you follow the routes and spot a defining feature?
• City: is its shape clear without making your subject too small?