More people are now using electronic maps, leaving the Ordnance Survey with the need to drop its policy of routinely producing its paper maps for the entire UK.
In future, anyone wishing to have a paper map will have to order it and it will be printed specially.
The change will be introduced gradually and some maps for popular hiking areas, such as the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales, are likely to continue in print.
The paper maps have served for decades indispensable guides, but sales have been declining in recent years. Increasingly, electronic satellite navigation systems are proving more popular.
The number of paper maps sold last year dropped to 1.9 million for the first time since the hiking ranges were introduced in the 1970s. In the late 1980s nearly 3.5 million were bought.
The Ordnance Survey is a government agency whose statutory obligations include mapping the entire country and maintaining accurate, up-to-date charts.
Every day 10,000 changes are entered on its database, including new properties, changed road layouts, and closed pubs. But these only reach print every two to five years whereas digital versions are instant.
The Ordnance Survey was created to conduct a military survey of Scotland following the Jacobite rebellion of 1745.
