Google-maps – extract a Google Maps Mashup bitmap that is larger than the screen

I would like to produce a large, high resolution map for printing to a plotter.

If I had an arbitrarily large screen, like the size of the plotter paper, I would simply zoom to the desired level, adjust the browser window to the desired cropping, and do a screen capture. Unfortunately my monitor limits me to 1280×1024.

I can assemble the map mosaic-wise by manually panning/"Print Screen", and incrementally pasting each section into a bitmap editor. Of course all the edge widgetry needs to be cropped out of each section, so panning has to allow for overlap. I've done this before, and it is quite arduous and error prone.

Are there any tools out there for automating this? Ideally I'd like to compose the map at a higher zoom level, and simply specify the box boundary and zoom level of the final map. But any automation would be better than this… (I am looking for a Google Maps solution because I have a mashup.)