OT: Print yourself postage labels.

[John Brown]

Not clear if you mean a smartphone or any mobile phone.

They are just an expensive solution to a problem

That?s wrong on both counts. Smartphones aren't more expensive than other computers and simple mobile phones can be free, a gift from someone who has upgraded. Same with smartphones.

And its silly to claim that they are a solution to a problem that never existed, smartphones do covid checkins much better than anything else and simple mobile phones do calls when you aren't home much better than anything else.

Smartphones do navigation much better than map books too.

[nightjar]

I would disagree with the last. I always prefer maps for planning.

[nightjar]

That is the featured price. Further down the price list is the price I quoted, for 100 sheets of four.

[Andrew]

Men *never* read maps (or ask directions), so why would they need a device that 'navigates' ?.

[John Brown]

Andrew [e-mail] wrote

Wrong, I have always done both before smartphones and satnavs.

so why would

To get to where they want to go much more effectively.

Complete pain in the arse trying to navigate with a paper map while driving with only the driver in the car.

[nightjar]

I prefer to think better experienced with maps. I have been using those to navigate with for about 60 years.

For that, I have a dedicated sat nav built into my car, which is vastly superior to any smartphone. Before that, I would plan on a map and create a route list, written large and held on a clipboard, to navigate with.

[nightjar]

Men never ask directions, because they have already looked the way up on a map. Women can't fold maps. :-)

[Steve Walker]

Maps are better for planning an overall route, but are next to useless (unless you have a co-driver) for navigating your way into a city and to the door of your destination. SatNav works so much better for that. Gone are the days of trying to read an A to Z, a sheet of directions and twisting your head around to read the name of a side-street that only has the name on the wrong side for you to see, while being unable to stop anywhere to plan further, without pulling off the road that you are on and then maybe ending up filtered off through a one-way system.

[nightjar]

I could usually remember that information from the map. I am out of practice since I started buying cars with sat navs in though.

SatNav works so much better for that. Gone

A large screen built-in sat nav is so much clearer that a smart phone though.

[nightjar]

Perfectly practical when I lived in London. You only need to remember the main roads you need to get you to the right area and a few more roads once you get there.

My sat nav gives me real time updates on traffic from the radio. In fact, looking for traffic build ups or the occasional road closures when I am driving around areas I know is my more usual use of it that finding my way to places I don't know.

Is that something new to smart phones? I have had voice navigation on my car sat naves literately since the last century. When I am using it as a sat-nav I still like to look at the screen for a general view, for a more detailed picture of complex junctions, for the correct lane indicator when approaching a junction and for the last few hundred yard distance count-down indicator to my next turn.

[John Miller]

In Windows10 hit the Windows, shift and "S" keys together which enables you to select & copy the label produced on the screen which can then be pasted into Word and adjusted to any size & position you want John M

[Andy Burns]

But captured only at screen resolution then magnified, instead of being rendered crisply at laser printer resolution.

[nightjar]

...

The only place I've ever had problems with is Venice, but that evolved around water transport, not roads.

[Dave Plowman (News]

I do realise it could be done. But your way takes a lot longer than simply cutting it out from A4. ;-)

[nightjar]

I'm never likely to need to.

[Dave Plowman (News]

A PDF with a barcode should really be a vector file which can be resized with no change in definition. So a proper PDF editor should be the way to move it around etc for printing to a specific size. I'm sure this would be worth it if printing lots of labels all the same. But I don't.

[Dave Plowman (News]

I'd say you're a lot better than most, then. If a stranger and crossing London, there would be lots of main roads to remember too. Which often change names several times along their route.

Other thing is a satnav works just as well in the dark. Unlike a map.

[Steve Walker]

More importantly, an (up to date) SatNav, also knows which roads are one-way, no right-turn, etc. which can totally throw your navigation using memory and a year old A to Z.

[nightjar]

Quite possibly. My father and I picked up many awards doing club and restricted level motor rallies in the 1960s, which had a lot to do with combining one of the best drivers with one of the best navigators. I have also never got lost in a North African Souk, not even the notorious one in Fez. It has a lot to do with visual imagery, which I have always been good at.

If a stranger and crossing

You don't need to know local road names, except near your destination. You only need to know what A road you should be using and, preferably, what places to look for on the road signs.

It is a rare city that doesn't have street lights and most cars have map reading lights. However, I didn't say I don't use a sat-nav, only that maps worked well for me when I lived in London, which was long before mobile phones, or even desk top computers. These days, I will use the in-car sat-nav, which has a much larger screen than any smart phone and an annoying voice.

[nightjar]

At the times I used those, there was no other option.