Frequently asked questions

A second way to draw the same elevation data. Instead of contour lines, Points lays a grid of dots, squares or crosses over the zone; the higher the ground, the more glyphs are kept and the bigger they get. Switch between Lines and Points with the Render control in the editor.

It is a tool that reads a digital elevation model — a grid of ground heights measured from space — and traces a line through every point sitting at the same altitude. TopoLines does that for any area you draw on the map and hands you the result as vector artwork rather than a picture of a map.

GEDTM30 — a global bare-earth terrain model at 30 m per pixel — on the free tier, and 10 m GeoTIFF on Pro. Over France, Pro uses IGN RGE ALTI at 5 m, which is the finest public terrain data available there.

As accurate as the underlying elevation model. At 30 m sampling, features narrower than about 30 m are invisible; at 10 m you start to see individual gullies and ridgelines. Neither is a substitute for a surveyed map for navigation or engineering.

Yes — coverage is truly global, including high latitudes above 60°N. Ocean is masked out, so coastal zones give you the land contours without a false sea-level pattern.

Yes — contours arrive as real vector paths grouped by elevation level, so you can restyle, recolour or delete any band in Figma or Illustrator. Enable Flatten if you would rather have one single shape.

Anything you like, including commercial work — prints, posters, packaging, client projects. The contour line art you generate is yours.

Two ways: copy HD PNG or SVG to your clipboard from the web app and paste it into a Figma file, or install the TopoLines Figma plugin and generate contours without leaving the canvas.

QGIS is a full GIS suite and can do far more, at the cost of installing software, sourcing a DEM and configuring a contour algorithm. TopoLines does the single job of turning a drawn area into clean, print-ready contour artwork, in a browser, in a few seconds.

Yes, on the same terms as Lines: switching to Points, previewing it and exporting the standard PNG are free. HD PNG, SVG and elevation gradients use credits, exactly like they do for contour lines. There is no separate Points plan.

No. Both modes read the same elevation model for the same zone. Points samples it on a grid and sizes each glyph by height; Lines traces lines of equal height. Switching modes doesn't fetch the terrain again.

The size and density ramp is relative to each zone: its lowest ground gets the smallest glyphs and its highest ground the biggest. That lets a gentle coastal plain use the full range, but it also means two zones don't share one scale.

Those exports always contain the contour lines of the zone. The point field is a rendering of the elevation — export it as PNG or SVG.

Yes. Density and glyph size scale with the export width, so a PNG High or an SVG has the same pattern as the on-screen preview, just sharper.

Generating and downloading a standard PNG is free — just sign in with Google or GitHub. Pro features are pay-as-you-go through credit packs: €5 for 20 credits, €10 for 100, €35 for 500. There is no subscription and no monthly fee.

Around two credits for a typical export. The exact cost scales with the area you drew and the resolution you asked for, so a small zone at 10 m terrain costs less than a 2000 km² one. The price is shown before you confirm.

Never. A pack is a one-off purchase and the credits stay on your account until you spend them — there is nothing to cancel and nothing that lapses.

Neither, because neither is needed. The free tier is permanent rather than a trial, and Pro is bought in credit packs rather than billed monthly.

Card and PayPal, handled by Lemonsqueezy, which acts as merchant of record and takes care of VAT and invoicing.

That normally means you checked out with a different email than the one you log in with. Open the claim page and enter your order ID and checkout email — both are in your Lemonsqueezy receipt — to move the credits onto your account.