Memory-Map has launched its Digital Map Shop, letting users of its popular mapping software download the exact map areas they want, when they want it.

Up until now, Memory-Map has used a regional model for map purchases – you buy big chunks of map covering, say, the south of England or a National Park. That’s easy to understand, but you often find that you’re effectively paying for big chunks of map that you’re never going to use. The Digital Map Shop changes all that. You buy a Top-Up voucher (which can be bought from shops or online direct from Memory-Map), which then gives you “map credits”. A £25 Top-Up gets you 25,000sq km of Ordnance Survey Landranger 1:50,000 maps or 750sq km of 1:25,000 Explorer maps. £50 gets 50,000sq km of 1:50,000 or 1,500sq km of 1:25,000, while £100 gets you 125,000sq km of 1:50,000 or 3,500sq km of 1:25,000.

If you’re struggling to picture how much map those numbers represent, the whole of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset comes in at 25,000sq km, while 125,000sq km covers Scotland in its entirety. The best bit is, of course, that you choose exactly which areas you want by simply drawing around it in Memory-Map. Any credits you don’t use stay on your account, so you can just pop in and grab 100sq km for a ride in a new area. Or if you’re planning, say, a South Downs Way assault, you can get only the map tiles with the trail itself on them rather than ending up with the whole of the Sussexes.

Digital Map Shop has complete GB coverage of Landranger and Explorer maps, plus aerial photography, IGN maps, A-Z street plans and areas of Europe, America and Australia, with more being added all the time. And if you’re on the move with a Pocket PC, you can download maps straight to your mobile device over Wifi or 3G.

It’s certainly pretty straightforward to use, and makes the whole business of buying digital maps a lot more compelling. Find out more at www.memory-map.co.uk.