This example shows how applications can benefit from dynamic scaling of Shapefiles. Dynamic scaling is the automatic reduction in size of a Shapefile, based on the expected display size.

During the dynamic scaling of the original Shapefile, unnecessary points are discarded. This produces a smaller Shapefile, resulting in a faster download time. This is demonstrated by the bottom area loading its Shapefile noticably faster than the top area.

Both the top and bottom areas above are Shapefile Rendering Applets that download and render a Shapefile. The only difference between them is the Shapefile they load. The top Applet loads the original Shapefile, while the bottom Applet loads a dynamically scaled version of the original.