Toronto, ON, December 8, 2005 - Avenza Systems Inc., producer of MAPublisher cartographic software and Geographic Imager spatial suite for Adobe Photoshop, is pleased to announce the winners of the 2005 MAPublisher Map Awards - a competition that showcases the quality and diversity of maps that can be produced with MAPublisher and recognizes and rewards their excellence.

"As in previous years, the entries in this year's awards did not fail to impress us all," said Ted Florence, president of Avenza Systems Inc. "MAPublisher users continue to shine and display true cartographic excellence in their work. We congratulate the winners and thank all entrants for their excellent display of cartographic skill using MAPublisher," he added.

Dozens of individual submissions were received this year including a great many from overseas including some from Peru, Italy and Norway. The overseas entries again proved to be an excellent contingent and figured prominently in the final results.

A copy of all winning maps and notable entrants for this year's competition will be forwarded to The Map Division of the Library of Congress in Washington, DC to be added to the MAPublisher collection established in 2003.

Summary of category winners

2005 Best Map Overall - J. Eric Schuster, Division of Geology and Earth Resources, Washington State Department of Natural Resources for 'Geologic Map of Washington State'

2005 Best Special Purpose Map - Patrick Jankanish, The King County GIS Center for 'Regional Trails in King County'

2005 Best Topographic Map - Patrick Dunlavey, Pat Dunlavey Cartographics for 'Berkshire County'

2005 Best General Purpose Map - Craig Molymeux, Meridian Maps for 'Tasmania Wall Map'

2005 Best Transportation Map - Craig Molymeux & Will Pringle, Australian Geographic for 'South Coast of New South Wales'

2005 Best Geologic Map - J. Eric Schuster, Division of Geology and Earth Resources, Washington State Department of Natural Resources for 'Geologic Map of Washington State'

2005 Best Multimedia Map - Jim Blakeslee, Geocentric for 'Downtown Bethesda Interactive Guide'

2005 Best Collections Maps - Will Pringle & John Cleasby, Australian Geographic for 'Explore Australia's Outback'

5 additional submissions received Notable Entry status.

Details of each map, the associated images and the notable entries can be found on the Avenza website at http://www.avenza.com/MPcomp/2005.

More about MAPublisher

MAPublisher is powerful map production software for creating cartographic-quality maps from GIS data. Developed as a suite of plug-ins for Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia Freehand, MAPublisher leverages the superior graphics capabilities of these design packages with over 40 tools including import/export of major GIS file formats with all the attribute information intact and usable.

More about Avenza Systems Inc.

Avenza Systems Inc. is an award winning, privately held corporation that provides cartographers and GIS professionals with powerful software tools for making better maps. In addition to software offerings for Mac and Windows users, the Company offers value-added data sets, product training and consulting services. Visit www.avenza.com or call 416-487-5116 for more details.

For further information:

Tel: 416-487-5116
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Web: www.avenza.com