[GIS] Exporting Google basemap as .tif (non-commercial) w/QuickMapServices

basemapgoogle mapsqgisquickmapservices

I'm trying to export a Google satellite basemap as tif to visualise a personal project I'm working on.

I'm using QuickMapServices to fetch the Google basemap. But whenever I use "Save As" I get the error "Unsupported data source". I wondered if it was a coordinate issue, but its set to WGS84/Pseudo Mercator.

Up in Canada, it seems that my only basemap options are Bing and Google. The problem with Bing is that its too blurry to make out some features I'm trying to identify.

Best Answer

Definitely not endorsed, but you can do this approach:

  1. Add an XYZ tile source for the Google Maps layer:

    http://mt0.google.com/vt/lyrs=y&hl=en&x={x}&y={y}&z={z}&s=Ga

  2. Add the layer to your map, zoom to desired region

  3. Right click the layer, Save As
    • Set format to GeoTIFF
    • Untick "Create VRT"
    • Enter a filename
    • Under Extent, click "Map view extent"
    • Under Resolution, make sure you use the horizontal/vertical resolution option and NOT the columns/rows option. Enter a reasonable resolution (units are meters per pixel), and make sure both the horizontal and vertical resolution are equal. If the generated rows/columns values are extreme, drop your resolution.
  4. Click OK and wait while the tiles are downloaded and saved to the GeoTIFF destination.
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