{"id":5662,"date":"2013-12-13T09:44:31","date_gmt":"2013-12-13T14:44:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2013\/12\/review-barrington-atlas-ipad-app\/"},"modified":"2017-11-04T16:44:48","modified_gmt":"2017-11-04T20:44:48","slug":"review-barrington-atlas-ipad-app","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2013\/12\/review-barrington-atlas-ipad-app\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Barrington Atlas iPad App"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Barrington<\/p>\n

The Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World<\/em> was a landmark in historical cartography: an atlas that pinpointed locations from classical antiquity on modern maps. The result of more than a decade’s work and $4.5 million in funding support (here’s the project website<\/a>), the print version<\/a> of the Barrington Atlas<\/em>, which came out in 2000, was both enormous and expensive: larger than either the National Geographic<\/a><\/em> or Times Comprehensive<\/a><\/em> atlases,<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> and priced at an eye-popping $395.<\/p>\n

Now, as I mentioned earlier<\/a>, there’s an iPad version of the Barrington Atlas<\/em><\/a>, which (they say) contains the full content of the $395 print atlas and costs only $20 (iTunes link<\/a>). On that basis it’s a no-brainer: $20 is better than $395. (95 percent off!) Classicists with iPads who don’t buy this app have something wrong with them. But how does it work as a map app?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

How do you create an iPad version of an existing print atlas? If you’re the National Geographic Society, with a century or more of cartography behind it, you’re more than able to put out a $2 app<\/a> that includes several levels of map detail and can be panned and zoomed to your heart’s content. But if you’re the Barrington Atlas<\/em>, you don’t have the same resources.<\/p>\n

So what you end up with in the Barrington Atlas<\/em> app are high-resolution versions of the original maps from the print version. These maps\u2014which are marvellous, by the way\u2014used the Lambert conformal conic projection<\/a>: stitching them together to form a seamless single map would be a major effort, all the more considering that the maps were produced in the 1990s using Illustrator 6 on early PowerPC Macintoshes (the iPads on which this app runs are much more powerful computers). Instead, you browse the individual maps in a Cover Flow-style interface.<\/p>\n

\"Barrington<\/p>\n

That’s not to say that the app is completely uninteractive. Pressing the compass button shows you the adjacent maps, so you can explore after a fashion.<\/p>\n

\"Barrington<\/p>\n

Pressing the key button opens up the legend.<\/p>\n

\"Barrington<\/p>\n

Navigation is also facilitated by the Locator tab, which allows you to select individual maps from the key map interface, below. (This also shows the Barrington Atlas<\/em>‘s coverage: I bet you weren’t expecting it to include Tibet.)<\/p>\n

\"Barrington<\/p>\n

All things considered, it’s a reasonable approach to presenting the information without having to start from scratch, particularly for an app that will not have a broad audience.<\/p>\n

That said, I did find a few interface problems: page-turning was slow and sometimes unreliable (tapping worked better than dragging), and the Cover Flow browsing was a bit blocky. It crashed on me once or twice. I tested this app on a new iPad Air; I wonder how well it runs on an iPad 2, which is the minimum hardware required. And the app doesn’t save state: it doesn’t remember what page of the Introduction you were reading or what map you were consulting; reopening the app starts from scratch.<\/p>\n

Not that these are deal-breakers\u2014not for this kind of app. It works well enough, at least on top-of-the-line hardware, that those with an interest in this subject should be able to lay down their $20 without much hesitation. It beats $395, after all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World was a landmark in historical cartography: an atlas that pinpointed locations from classical antiquity on modern maps. The result of more than a decade’s work and… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,80,296],"tags":[206,207,205,260,509],"class_list":["post-5662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-mobile","category-product-reviews","tag-ancient-greece","tag-ancient-rome","tag-classical","tag-ios","tag-ipad"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5656,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2013\/10\/barrington-atlas-ipad\/","url_meta":{"origin":5662,"position":0},"title":"The Barrington Atlas Comes to the iPad","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"30 October 2013","format":"link","excerpt":"At a list price of $395, the print version of the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World (Princeton University Press, 2000), was more expensive than some iPads. Which makes the forthcoming iPad version of the Atlas, described in the announcement as \"complete content of the classic reference work,\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "History"","block_context":{"text":"History","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/history\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":557,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/01\/antiquity-a-la-carte\/","url_meta":{"origin":5662,"position":1},"title":"Antiquity \u00e0 la Carte","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"27 January 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"The Ancient World Mapping Center\u2014formerly the Classical Atlas Project, the team behind the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World, the expensive\u00a0atlas later\u00a0reborn as an iPad app\u00a0(iTunes link)\u2014has a web-based map interface to classical\/late antiquity geographic\u00a0data. The original (2012) version\u00a0of \"Antiquity \u00e0 la Carte\" is kind of old school\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "History"","block_context":{"text":"History","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/history\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"antiquity-alacarte","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/antiquity-alacarte-1024x509.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/antiquity-alacarte-1024x509.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/antiquity-alacarte-1024x509.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/antiquity-alacarte-1024x509.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1845138,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2025\/11\/300000-kilometres-of-roman-roads\/","url_meta":{"origin":5662,"position":2},"title":"300,000 Kilometres of Roman Roads","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"14 November 2025","format":"link","excerpt":"Itiner-e is a comprehensive digital atlas and dataset of the Roman Empire\u2019s entire road network, based on fieldwork, existing maps, published data and remote sensing. It\u2019s an attempt to provide more granular detail than past atlases of Roman roads such as the Barrington Atlas (the iPad edition of which I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "History"","block_context":{"text":"History","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/history\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1148,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/03\/conference-on-gis-and-ancient-history\/","url_meta":{"origin":5662,"position":3},"title":"Conference on GIS and Ancient History","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"8 March 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"Mapping the Past: GIS Approaches to Ancient History, a conference hosted by the Ancient World Mapping Center (the folks behind the\u00a0Barrington Atlas), takes place at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, from 7 to 9 April 2016. It's open to the public. Here's the full schedule. [via] Previously:\u00a0Antiquity \u00e0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Conferences"","block_context":{"text":"Conferences","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/conferences\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1821821,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2023\/12\/2023-holiday-gift-guide\/","url_meta":{"origin":5662,"position":4},"title":"2023 Holiday Gift Guide","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"8 December 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Here\u2019s the 2023 iteration of my annual gift guide. The idea of which is, if you have a map-obsessed person in your life and would like to give them something map-related\u2014or you are a map-obsessed person and would like your broad hints to have something to link to\u2014this guide may\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Gift Guides"","block_context":{"text":"Gift Guides","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/gift-guides\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/globemakers-bellerby-103x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/globemakers-bellerby-103x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/globemakers-bellerby-103x150.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1786828,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/12\/the-times-comprehensive-atlas-of-the-world-15th-edition\/","url_meta":{"origin":5662,"position":5},"title":"The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World, 15th Edition","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"14 December 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"How exactly do you review an atlas? The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World (HarperCollins) is the flagship of the Times World Atlas line. (The others, in descending order of size and price, are the Concise, the Universal, the Reference, the Desktop and the Mini.) It's the latest in a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Book Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Book Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/book-reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/times-comprehensive-15th-oblique-163x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5662"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5701,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5662\/revisions\/5701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}