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January 23, 2007
Google Earth Save Image Option
Google Earth has features for saving or printing your current view in GE. The free GE can only save out up to 1000x1000 pixels (or up to your screen size), but GE Pro can save up to 4800x4800 pixels which is good enough for high quality large prints. I've been experimenting with this feature in GE 4 Pro, and the results are stunning. For example, I took this panorama-like screenshot of the 3D buildings of Denver (see the blog entry I wrote about these models). Which you can see by clicking on the picture above through a Picasa Web Album. Once there you select "Download Photo" to see the full resolution (4800x1199 pixels) of this image. The quality of these 3D models with photo textures when zoomed in at full resolution is amazing.
The method GE Pro uses for creating these images is kind of cool. You select the menu choice "File->Print..." or "File->Save ->Save Image..." to initiate the process, then select what resolution you want. With the "Save" option you will get a requester letting you save the results to a JPG file. GE Pro basically uses the same method some photographers use to create "gigapixel" digital camera photos by taking a series of photos in a tile-like fashion of a scene and stitching them together using a panorama-style stitching algorithm. Each "shot" is "exposed" long enough to load the detail of the scene. It's fun to watch - the first few times. I found you can't get too close to a scene with 3D models because the tile-shoot method will actually miss parts of the models when it "zooms" in for each shot.
Take note that you should read the license for GE and GE Pro (search "license" on the GE help page) with regards to prints which says they can be used for "personal use only". You also can not get permission to sell the prints - I asked Google about this.
Posted by FrankTaylor at January 23, 2007 12:41 PM
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Comments
Posted by: BillyG at January 23, 2007 4:51 PM
KEEP IT UP, WE APPRECIATE YOUR SERVICES.
Posted by: kitumbika at January 26, 2007 5:28 AM
Thanks for the tip. When you use GE Pro and save the image, is the resolution good enough to print out a poster-size print of say 3' by 4'?
Posted by: EBusta at November 30, 2007 6:10 PM
Very cool thanks for the tip on google earth and ge pro
Posted by: lgjhost at January 17, 2008 11:17 PM
Good tip. A nice refinement to this feature would be to geocode the saved jpg file's EXIF/IPTC metadata with the image center's lat/long coordinates. That way, one can import the image to a Picasa web album, eg, and have it automatically display its Photo Location (and thus link to Google Maps and ultimately back to Google Earth).
Posted by: zeke7 at January 27, 2008 3:35 PM
Cannot save my pictures from Earth! They show a black box only, no image?
What can I do to get images back please?
Regards Pia
Posted by: pia westhausen at February 17, 2008 12:55 PM
Same question as Pia. I've been using Google Earth for years, on different OS and different computers. I have NEVER been able to save a jpg image. I get a file with a big black box in it. What am I doing wrong? My work-around is to email the thing to myself. Works, but is a clunky extra step that seems silly. If anybody has a solution, I'd love to hear from you!
Posted by: Darell at August 29, 2008 7:49 PM
Same problem here, only with printing. Even if I email the jpg to myself, I can view it without problem but printing only yields a large black rectangle, same as when I print directly from GE.
Posted by: John at May 4, 2009 9:46 PM
same problem for me...
"Save image" "save as" "jpg"
and it"s broken...
I"m usining GoogleEarth v.4.37 for linux...
Posted by: dani at September 18, 2009 9:58 AM
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Sounds great... right up to the "personal use only" point.
I guess if I want a wallpaper for my desktop it's cool, but my browser is always full screen anyway, so...