How to best print my family tree?

February 19, 2008 7:20 AM

I've collected a large GEDCOM file of family tree information. What are the best ways to print charts and books from this data?

I've been collecting information on Geni from my relatives. With close to 400 family members, I'd like to look into the following options:

- Printing small scale charts for individual family members (showing ancestors, cousins, etc.)

- Printing a large wall chart of the entire tree

- Printing a book with trees and profiles on key people

I've looked into a couple software applications on the market, but haven't been able to find what I'm looking for. To clarify - I've already collected the data, now I want to put it in printed form.

I am on a Mac, but have access to a PC.

posted by kdern to computers & internet (5 comments total)

Probably the best Mac program is MacFamilyTree, which will print in various chart formats; another is Heredis.

There's an old OS 9 program I used to find particularly good for cramming lots of tree detail into a standard A4/letter sheet: Gene.

Of course, the standard cross-platform format is GEDCOM: most Mac and PC apps support it, which will enable you to export your data and try it in different programs.

There are some good professional printing services around - I only know the UK ones, as I'm a genealogy journalist here, but let me know if you are in the UK too and need some recommendations of those.

For a broader list of software and other tools, the place to start is probably CyndisList - or take a look at MacGenealogy.

There are some programs which will tile sheets of paper to create a huge chart; and others support printers which take rolls of paper. I can't remember which does what but will look some stuff up shortly.
posted by hatmandu at 8:38 AM on February 19, 2008

Me again. Two of the most flexible programs for tree creation, offering lots of control, are GenBox and TreeDraw (both are for PC) - the latter is used by some of the professional printing services, and offers scaling to a chosen number/size of sheets of paper. Good luck!
posted by hatmandu at 8:47 AM on February 19, 2008

I like Reunion--it has a ton of printing options. It's also twice as much as MacFamilyTree, unfortunately. But there's a free demo you could use to import your GEDCOM file and play with the various printing options.
posted by hades at 8:47 AM on February 19, 2008

geni.com is a neat online gedcom compatible family tree editor that has some nice printing options.
posted by jrishel at 8:50 AM on February 19, 2008

If you have an ancestry.com account, you can upload your GEDCOM and make custom-made books and charts (including giant wall-size charts) on their site, which they will then send to you.
posted by Asparagirl at 5:26 PM on February 19, 2008