# Barrington Atlas — user reviews > 27 indexed App Store user reviews of Barrington Atlas by Princeton University Press, rated 3.10/5 from 9 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/barrington-atlas/id767575157/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/barrington-atlas/id767575157.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 3 · 4★ 0 · 3★ 3 · 2★ 1 · 1★ 2 ## Newest reviews (7 of 27) ### 3/5 — Requires periodic re-installation *2017-03-04* The search/gazetteer function mysteriously malfunctions after a while. The only solution I've found is to delete and reinstall the app. Of course, you lose your search history etc. iOS 10/iPad Air and mini. This was also an issue on ios7, clearly an application bug. That aside, this is an excellent resource ### 3/5 — Useful resource, but it keeps crashing *2014-10-26* This app has some wonderful maps that will be very helpful in my research and as a general reference for my work. My main issue is that the app keeps crashing about three pages into the introduction. I can search for places and use the maps fine, but I also want to be able to actually use the introduction of the book as well. It would also be great if they could include some bibliographic references. ### 4/5 — Good overall, but two problems. *2014-07-21* The first problem is a minor one: searching a place can finding the relevant map is somewhat slow. I don’t mean there are a number of steps involved in that, rather it takes a bit for the iPad to “think” its way through your search and find the correct maps. The second problem is a major one: if you search a place, and that search yields the first map (“1 Internum Mare”) as a result, tapping that result will ALWAYS bring you to map 1a, instead of map 1. This is a major problem, since map 1a is a relatively minor map (“Fortunatae Insulae”) when compared to map 1 (a map of the entire Mediterranean and its shores; your standard map of the ancient world). Other than those two complaints, this is a great app and very convenient to boot. It is much easier to have this atlas with me than to carry the large print edition around. The price may be steep for your average app, but the maps and information contained are worth the price. ### 3/5 — An excellent book-not well translated into software. *2014-02-22* The Barrington Atlas is a classic book. It is a spectacular atlas of the ancient Classical world and a reference that shows things you can't get easily (or sometimes at all) elsewhere. The idea of having this big and expensive book turned into a portable and affordable e-book was a fine one. Making knowledge more available is a good thing. But Princeton and the developers here are not presenting this as an e-book, they've offered it as an application in iOS. This looks like another potentially good idea: imagine if the artificial boundaries imposed by the need for pagination in a physical book could be gone, if the zoom function could actually take you in close (at least to major cities and important historical sites); if you could put two sections of the map into custom windows and juxtapose them (or at least toggle back and forth between them); and so on. The only limitations on what could have been done were the imagination and budget of the developers. Unfortunately, those limitations appear to have been considerable. What we are presented with is more or less an e-book translation of the physical book, blocked from being able to be displayed on a desktop Mac, where some of its limitations could be tempered by the greater display size of the desktop, by being presented as an app instead of as an e-book. Had Princeton chosen to do so, it could have enhanced the contents of this book with the many resources available to iOS app developers. Applications like the spectacular realizations of The Waste Land and Shakespeare Sonnets point towards what is possible. Within the framework of the Barrington maps, all sorts of information about the physical universe depicted in them would have been possible, including more on topography, climate, perhaps even expanded maps of the major cities: Rome, Alexandria, Constantinople, Thessalonica, the Greek City-States, etc. It should be possible, for example, to take a virtual trip across the Via Egnatia and "see" the physical features of the landscape and the population centers along the way (this would not necessarily have had to be an animation, the information could have been in words, story-boards, other image-types, etc.) The point of the original Barrington was to enable its users to have a reliable guide to the places and physical settings of long ago. Within the limits of its time's technology, it did a fine job of this. Our time's technology is well past that of the book's creation and it is a shame that so little of it had a hand in this new rendering. The original content of the book is faithfully delivered here, although with inexplicably limited zooming and equally inexplicably awkward page-to-page navigation (if you expand a page to look at it, you must go back to the default zoom before you can page forward), and at a fair price. We should be grateful for that. On the other hand, as with so much in Classical History, it seems that there were great opportunities presented that were ignored. If you are a scholar or a student of this period, this is a resource that you should have. It's good for what it is but a mere shadow of what it could have been. ### 4/5 — Detailed Atlas of the Ancient World *2014-01-12* This set of maps has just what I was looking for: a portable atlas of antiquity I can access easily. My only gripe is the zoom does not go far enough. On my iPad 2 I have to keep my fingers split to view detail. ### 4/5 — Update: Reboot your iPad *2013-12-20, version 1.0* Had to restart my iPad and now it works great. Maybe add that to your product description. Original review: I have an iPad mini and I can't do anything in this app that doesn't cause it to crash. Zoom in on a map? Crash. Swipe to a new map? Crash. I love the atlas and was excited to have a portable copy, but not when it's so unstable. ### 4/5 — The Maps are luscious. App needs some work. *2013-12-09, version 1.0* This is a superb resource particularly if you think that the full atlas costs many hundreds of dollars. The maps are extraordinary to look at on an iPad Air. For a first effort, highly commendable. 4 stars just for making this data available at such an affordable price. I’ve got one or two observations for improvement, however. They are all in the main about the navigation of the maps, which prevented the 5th star being added to the review. - The navigation buttons, etc, are still IOS 6 style. - The page curling animation in the “introduction” section is cheesy. - Over half of the pages in the “introduction” are credits and preface. Perhaps split into separate documents? - The way it opens with two logos and stops at the second one is actually not a great iOS interface practice. It should open with the menu on the left open and ready to go. The app opens first with a Princeton Uni Press logo, and after this first logo splash screen, that you get another logo splash screen (the “Barrington Atlas Logo”). This second logo you have to tap or slide in order to reveal mere navigation (which would be zero cost to show first up!). This is doubly wrong. So far I’ve seen two logos and no functionality. When I tap on this second logo (and it’s a nice bit of art) all what happens is that the logo slides right a bit and reveals a menu on the left. That menu, with the lovely bit of Barrington Atlas artwork on the right, should be right there when it starts up, not the third screen visible. - By far, the most annoying thing about the app is, every time it starts, you have to go through the navigation of the logos all over again. If I background the app and then reload it, I have to navigate all over again to find the map I was looking at. So if I was reading some a text online with my iPad, and I wanted to consult the map, I have to start from the beginning (find the right map, zoom in to the map I was looking at) every time I open the app. When I switch back to reading, and want to look at the map again, I would have to find the entire map all over again. Which is a major interface failure. - When you go to the “maps” section with the “Cover Flow” style view, it’s slow, and not terribly responsive (on an iPad Air! I’d hate to try it on my old iPad2). Also, this is the area that seems to cause instability (it just crashed then I was verifying the behaviour as I wrote this paragraph). The app has crashed twice on me in this part of the navigation. - It’s not entirely obvious that up in the right hand corner there is a list icon which gives a simple list view of the maps, with a regional overview (not a tape target, annoyingly). To be honest, I find this view preferable to the “Cover Flow” view. But when I select a map, then go “back” to the Maps, I’m back at the “Cover Flow” view of the maps, not the list view I started from. - The best view of all though is the big overview map! However, can this be please made conventionally zoomable? If you wanted the ‘Attica’ Map (No. 59) there’s no way you could accurately select its tiny square in that view. There is a loupe device which appears when tap-and-hold but once it appears I could not work out how to accurately control it and better than just trying to tap the tiny targets. Just make this map zoomable with a pinch gesture please. - I wish the topographical measurements on the map were in metres - the international standard - not in feet. A minor quibble. Once they clear up the stability and navigational issues with the app, my additional feature wish list is pretty simple, although fiendishly complex to implement: Vector based maps with selectable period layers. I realise that would mean all-new cartography though and probably make the price a lot more than $20. My thanks to the team who developed and assembled this. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Gazetteer still not working *2017-12-14, version 1.8.0* Updated if iOS 11 & the gazetteer is *still* not working... ### 1/5 — It WAS great *2016-11-25* This was such a useful tool until the search function stopped working. Without the gazetteer, this is no longer worth getting. So sad! ### 1/5 — Nice idea poorly done *2015-03-08* Zooming all the way out of a map gives a white screen. Poorly designed for the touch screen. The font is "stupid" small and not adjustable. Ridiculously over priced. Don't care what the hard copy costs. I WASTED $20 on this! Sad. ### 1/5 — Seriously Flawed *2014-11-13* App keeps crashing. Cannot navigate any of the introduction without the app closing. Should be an easy fix but I'd advise others to wait until they address this bug. ### 1/5 — Amazing Resource...But Keeps Crashing *2014-10-12* I'll want to give you five stars for what this thing is, which is an essential reference atlas for any classicist or for anyone with a passion for ancient history. It's truly brilliant, and we should applaud Princeton for publishing such a work at such an affordable price. Unfortunately, I am obliged to give it one star because, as with other reviewers, the app keeps crashing about 3 pages into the ebook function. And that is the complete opposite of brilliant. I'm running the latest OS on an IPad2. Please fix this, Princeton. I want to read about what I'm looking at! ### 1/5 — Crashes in iOS8 *2014-09-27* The app crashes after viewing about 3 pages of the written text (not the maps) ### 2/5 — No longer supported? *2019-10-27, version 1.8.0* The maps are excellent, and the price is very good compared to the book, but the gazetteer no longer works, and there doesn’t seem to be any support. Not a good look for a major academic publisher... ### 2/5 — Disappointing *2018-05-02* After using the search function the app crashes often. Not always, but five times in the past thirty minutes. Regardless of how much money was spent making this atlas twenty years ago, it is an overpriced app today. One can just look up locations on Wikipedia. Coverage in the Cyclades is very poor. Many islands have only their name--not much help. Little maps in the Blue Guide have much more detail. The search function is quite particular about spelling. Different transliterations of Greek spellings will not give you any results. I read the instructions and am still not clear on the "compass" icon. Had there been a trial version or 'lite' version, I would never have purchased this. If you already know where a city was you can usually find it in this atlas. If not it is less certain. 1:1,000,000 and 1:500,000 maps are not that useful. Overall a very disappointing experience. Perhaps if I bought a new iPad this app wouldn't crash so much, but iOS 10 is what I use. I can't buy a new iPad every year just because a lame atlas app crashes frequently. In 2018 the technology for seamless scrolling from one raster nautical chart to the next exists and can be found in iPad apps in this price range. Smooth transitions from chart to chart and smoother zooming would add a lot to this app. Perhaps this atlas would be better done as a vector chart. I would not recommend this app. ### 3/5 — Gazetteer does not work *2019-03-10* The alphabetic listing of sites no longer shows up, and the search function causes the app to crash and close. For the price, I expected some upkeep of the app. ### 3/5 — Must be reinstalled *2017-10-18* From time to time. Asside this bug, is an excellent reference work. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — An absolutely essential app; please keep updating! *2022-09-14* I use this app on a daily basis as I go through my classical texts because I really like to be familiar with the geography of the text I am reading. The ability to search for a specific location and have the app zoom in on the map where that location is is priceless. Please, please continue updating this app for the newer Apple software releases! ### 5/5 — 5 Star Content, 3 Star App *2020-01-24* The app needs a more intuitive may to navigate between the maps, it’s basically a confusingly organized PDF of insanely valuable maps. Ultimately the content is so valuable that I’m still very grateful they’ve released this as an app. ### 5/5 — Reinstall App - gazetteer problems solved *2018-08-20, version 1.8.0* On latest largest size iPad Pro, IOS 11 fully up to date - Gazetteer, though updated to latest version, still displayed no content. Problem solved by delete and re-install. Now Gazetteer displays fine. ### 5/5 — Finally works in iOS 8! *2015-05-28* The May 27 update finally fixed it! Now it is a great app, and worth every penny. Highly recommended. ### 5/5 — Best ancient atlas *2014-04-17, version 1.1* This atlas is fantastic and worth every penny of the £13.99 it costs, especially considering the price of the actual physical atlas is around £300! Among the functions available are a search for any ancient location. You can also see the modern countries superimposed on the main screen map if you wish. ### 5/5 — Barrington Atlas app *2014-01-12, version 1.1* This excellent app is a must for those interested in the Classical world, whether they be undergraduates or research scholars.. It is comprehensive, accurate and very user friendly. It has all places, large and small (e.g.. Vindolanda in Britannia; or Hermopolis Magna in Middle Egypt), where the Greeks and Romans were involved. It delineates the main Roman roads and the topography of the area. The app is worth the cost and more, considering the printed version is close to four hundred dollars. That it is designed for I-Pads mades it portable and can be taken on tours of the Graec-Roman World.Thank you Princeton University Press for making this “must’ available at a cost for students. ### 5/5 — Amazing App *2014-01-07* Useful, easy to use and incredibly detailed. ### 5/5 — Beautifully crafted *2013-12-11, version 1.0* This app packs in a phenomenal amount of research and detail as is a must for anyone interested in ancient history. ### 5/5 — Reason enough to buy an iPad *2013-12-09, version 1.0* Seriously. This is amazing. A searchable version of the entire atlas, with maps easily available to display in class or for research. I'm in awe. And for $20. This is the app my iPad has been waiting for, to justify its existence. ### 4/5 — Fantastic Maps *2018-09-16, version 1.8.0* Would look even better if there was an Apple TV version --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-06-10.*