The VMBA maps are in Adobe PDF (Portable Document Format). This format preserves the detail of the original vector graphics much better than a raster image format. However, you need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the format. If you do not have the reader, you can get it for free from Adobe at www.adobe.com.
Due to the size of the PDF files, you probably want to download them to your computer rather than looking at them on-line. To download a file, right click the link, and then click Save Target As. If you have the Adobe Acrobat Reader installed as a helper function for your browser, you can left click the link, but this is recommended only if you have a high speed internet connection or if you are accessing these files on a CDROM rather than over the internet.
After downloading, view the PDF files with the Adobe Acrobat Reader.
The small 8.5 inch x 11 inch maps can easily be printed on your color printer from the Acrobat Reader. On the Acrobat print menu, select Print as Image, but do not select Fit to Page. These small maps have collars that include latitude/longitude, scale bar, and locator.
For some routes you may wish to print a single area from one of the large maps rather than using multiple small maps. Unless you have a very large printer, you cannot print an entire large map. You can however print a selected piece. Use the Acrobat Reader graphics select tool to draw a rectangle around the area to print. To print at a scale of 1 inch = 1 mile on letter size paper, the rectangle should enclose 8 minutes (8 of the green grid cells) of both latitude and longitude. After making the selection, bring up the Acrobat print menu. In the printer dialog print the Selected graphic using Print as Image, but not Fit to Page. This will result in a true scale of 1 inch = 1 mile.
You can also zoom in to print a more detailed map. To do this, again use the Acrobat Reader graphics select tool to draw a rectangle around the area to print, but select a smaller area. For example, to print at a scale of approximately 1 inch = 1/2 mile, the rectangle should enclose 4 minutes of latitude and longitude. Then on the Acrobat print menu select both Print as Image and Fit to Page. The actual print scale will depend on your printer margins, but will be reasonably close to 1 inch = 1/2 mile.
If you know the number of a road that you want to find on the large map, you can find it using Acrobat's Find command on the Edit menu. Before using this command, zoom in on any part of the map until it is easy to read. When Acrobat finds the road number text, it will pan the map so that the text is centered.