I've not taken the time to understand the difference between all those different grid systems. I struggled to make lat/long work well. When I learned about the UTM system I was amazed by its ability to related to useful distances - certainly within midwest US sight distances.

Still, like I said, since I don't use UTM coordinates on a regular basis so I find myself relearning how the grid's easting & northing grids work, so I keep going back to maptools.com's turorial to remind myself. I never seem to remember which direction the 1000x1000 meter grid runs - which corner they start at - even though it works just like an X-Y regression plot. Hmmm, maybe that will help me remember.

I think the roamer type grid tool might have caused my confusion, since they tend to be used kind of backward - with the 0,0 point at the target location and counting down & left to the grid boundaries.

Again, I've come to really appreciate maptool.com's tools and especially their explanations & tutorials.

By the way, mytopo.com's topo maps can be ordered with either "Standard NAD83/WG84" or "NAD27" datum, and they can be ordered with no grid, tic marks, or full grid lines for either lat/long or UTM/MGRS/USNG.

The topo maps are printed on waterproof paper with fade-resistant waterproof ink, and they can be shipped folded or rolled. They can also be ordered laminated. The paper feels kind of plastic-ish to me.

I agree that they are pretty aged and wish they could get updated a bit. For the Boundary Waters (Minnesota+Canada) there are companies that maintain and sell more detailed & updated maps, but they use a different map scale, thus they need their own map tools (which maptools.com sells). I like this supply & demand sort of model (avoiding politics here).

Sorry if this sounds like an ad for mytopo and maptools, but I like their product(s) and especially like the choices they provide.