Provided are methods and apparatus for creating super-compressed map files. Using free and open-source software (FOSS), the tool create a super-compressed internally tiled Geo Tag Image File Format (TIFF) in a WGS84 datum (WGS84) similar in size to the original LizardTech's MrSID (SID) imagery from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). Converting NGA data to WGS84 allows mapping systems like NASA Worldwind (WW) to eliminate the step of re-projecting on the fly from non-native projections, thus reducing processing time. The disclosed method includes removing all pure-black pixels by setting them to black+1, changing all near-black border pixels with values less than 15 to 0 (pure black), setting pure black values to “no-data,” compressing the image with a compression scheme, and translating the compressed image to JPEG and a YCbCr color space to achieve greater compression.