In researching this I have found many references to the opposite, creating elevation data from contours, but nothing regarding contour creation. Preferably, I am looking for open source solutions like QGIS, Grass or command line tools but I am open to any suggestions that will get me pointed in the right direction.
I am planning to take the contour data into a vector drawing app for line formatting but if the app can do some of that as well it would be a major time saver.
Best Answer
If you are looking to convert DEMs to contour lines:
For converting scanned topo maps to vector contour lines, Arcscan is one of the easiest (and most sophisticated) programs out there. However, there are several opensource alternatives, including a promising GRASS approach:
Trace vector contours from a scanned map.
Additional information can be found here: