Obtaining Google Street images

Using Chrome you can find an area using Google maps http://maps.google.co.uk then drag the yellow Street View man to a particular location on a road to see the Street View images.

In a box in the top left hand corner the month and year of the image will be shown. Tap See more dates to show and select images of the same location taken on other dates.

When saving the image as a PDF, first of all you should check that Chrome is set to use the British date format. The month and year of the Street View image will be shown in MMM yyyy format anyway but, in addition, the date and time you saved the image as a PDF will also be shown and this needs to be in the correct dd/mm/yyyy format. So select Settings - Languages - Add Languages - English (United Kingdom) - Add.  This will add UK English to the list of languages. Tap on the three dots for the entry you have just added and tap Move to Top. The English (United Kingdom) entry should then appear at the top marked "This language is used to display the Google Chrome UI".

Then, to save the image as a PDF, tap on the three dots at the top far right of the Chrome browser and select Print. On the next screen select a layout of Portrait and a Destination/Printer of Save as PDF. Tap More Settings and select the following options:

Headers and Footers this will print the date that you printed the image in the top margin and the URL in the bottom margin as a record of when and how you obtained the StreetView image

Background Graphics This will ensure that the small map below the image showing where, and in which direction, the photo was taken, appears fully.

Choose Margins Custom and adjust the top and bottom margins so that the image appears in the centre of the page. In case the PDF you are creating is  eventually printed as a hardcopy you should adjust the left hand margin so that it is about 1cm. 

Tap Print and choose Save as PDF and save the image as a PDF with a name of e.g. Google StreetView - Strand Oct 2008.pdf 

The process of saving the image causes a certain amount of pixelation in the saved PDF. Check the PDF you have created to make sure that all significant parts of the image can be clearly seen.  If any areas of the PDF image are not clear at 100% zoom and pixelate when you zoom in, you should zoom in to the relevant area in the Chrome display and then do another Print - Save as PDF. 

If you are saving more than one image for a street for the same month/year you should number the images like this:

Google StreetView - Strand Oct 2008 - image 1.pdf 

Google StreetView - Strand Oct 2008 - image 2.pdf 

Street View images are taken by the Google car. Google maps also gives access to photographs of selected locations contributed by members of the public and uploaded to Google maps but such photographs do not have the same evidential value as Street View images because, for example, the month and year shown is generally the month/year they were uploaded which may not be the month/year when they were taken, and in some cases they might not even be photographs of the location they are associated with.     

Disclaimer

This information page is designed to be used only by clients of John Antell who have entered into an agreement for the provision of legal services. The information in it is necessarily of a general nature and will not be applicable to every case: it is intended to be used only in conjunction with more specific advice to the individual client about the individual case. This information page should not be used by, or relied on, by anyone else.

The information on this page about specific computer techniques is provided for information purposes only. Every reasonable effort has been made to ensure that the information is accurate and up to date at the time it was written but no responsibility for its accuracy, or for any consequences of relying on it, is assumed by me. You should satisfy yourself, before using any of the techniques, software or services described, that the techniques are appropriate for your purposes and that the software or service is reliable.

This page was lasted updated in October 2024 Disclaimer