For the past few years it has been technically possible to produce digital versions of charts and maps but the manual digitizing of very large amounts of irregular line and point data is both slow and prone to error; the benefits of automation in this field are less clear-cut than in the production of computed linework such as borders and lattices. Semi-automatic line digitizing equipment is just coming on to the market and this will undoubtedly speed up data acquisition rates, particularly where good-quality line work is being digitized. Nevertheless some mapping authorities (e.g. the United Kingdom Ordnance Survey) have already made considerable progress in the digitizing of maps, both to provide input for the automated fair-drawing of these maps on one or more scales and to supply digital versions of selected features (e.g. road and boundary patterns, frontings of buildings) to prospective customers, such as the public utility group—gas, electricity, telephone and drainage authorities.