This guide provides instructions for georeferencing scanned images of paper maps that have legible geographic coordinate information provided for each of the 4 corners of the map (see example images below). If your map does not coordinate information at the corners of the map extent, you should consult the Georeference By Map Features guide instead as the georeferencing process is significantly different for maps lacking this coordinate information.
This guide describes the georeferencing process in QGIS due to the fact that QGIS is free, open source, compatible with a variety of computer operating systems, and has georeferencing tools that are easy to learn and use (refer to the QGIS installation guide if you do not already have the software installed on your computer). The instructions provided in this guide are highly detailed to ensure that users are able to easily navigate the georeferencing process so you will notice that this guide is longer than most. It will walk you through the following major steps:
For the full guide instructions, continue reading below.
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