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What exactly is a digital plan?

A digital plan is simply a downloadable version of the same electronic file that is used to print the paper version of a plan that would otherwise be delivered by post.

The plan file itself is in-turn created by carefully scanning and digitizing a copy of the original paper plan which is being reproduced, which invariably also involves considerable work to refresh and clean-up the plan and generally bring it into a fit-for-purpose state. This work means that what the customer receives is not merely a warts-and-all copy of an original plan (which may be 50-years-old or more) but a new, recreated version of it.

Digital plan file formats

Digital plans come in the form of PDF files that can be easily opened using the customer's existing software on almost any device. The supplied files are not restricted or encrypted in any way, meaning that customers can freely save / alter / reproduce them for their own use - but they ARE 'watermarked' to discourage widespread redistribution. The watermark consists of the customer's own contact details added to the PDF image during the downloading process,.

Digital plans vs Printed plans

The chief benefit of buying a digital plan is the cost and time saving of being able to download it immediately rather than waiting for delivery by post

Being able to print multiple copies of the plan can also be hugely useful when building a model, and some builders may also wish to make alterations to the plan and/or print it out at different sizes for instance.

Printing digital plans

The chief disadvantage of digital plans is of course that few people have large-format printers at home capable of printing plans on a single sheet of paper - you can of course print-out onto multiple sheets though, and then stick those sheets together, and Adobe PDF Reader and similar software packages include a 'tile' printing function for exactly this purpose.