April 2014: From the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Coast Survey, the government will stop lithographic printing of NOAA nautical charts. In the past, the federal government prints the NOAA lithograph nautical charts and then sells them to commercial chart agents who sell them to the public. As of April 13, 2014, these charts will no longer be printed. NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey and its predecessor agencies have been printing lithograph charts since the Civil War. In 1999, NOAA formed its first partnership with a Print-on-Demand (POD) chart distributor to print nautical charts that are up-to-date at the time of printing. Since that time, most non-government customers have switched to POD for printed charts, and even more customers are using the charts digitally. In a statement on their website, the Coast Survey office said, “As much as wed like to continue the tradition of lithography, it is no longer justified as a use of tax dollars. This is the right way to go.”
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