Mapnik

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Mapnik
Original author(s)Artem Pavlenko
Developer(s)The Mapnik Contributors
Stable release
3.1.0[1] Edit this on Wikidata / 8 January 2021; 3 years ago (8 January 2021)
Repository
Written inC++
Operating systemCross-platform
LicenseLGPL
Websitemapnik.org Edit this at Wikidata

Mapnik is an open-source mapping toolkit for desktop and server based map rendering, written in C++. Artem Pavlenko, the original developer of Mapnik, set out with the explicit goal of creating beautiful maps[2] by employing the sub-pixel anti-aliasing of the Anti-Grain Geometry (AGG) library. Mapnik now also has a Cairo rendering backend. For handling common software tasks such as memory management, file system access, regular expressions, and XML parsing, Mapnik utilizes the Boost C++ libraries. An XML file can be used to define a collection of mapping objects that determine the appearance of a map, or objects can be constructed programmatically in C++, Python, and Node.js.

Data format[edit]

A number of data formats are supported in Mapnik using a plugin framework. Current plugins exist that utilize OGR and GDAL to read a range of vector and raster datasets. Mapnik also has custom Shapefile, PostGIS and GeoTIFF readers. There is also an osm2pgsql utility,[3] that converts OpenStreetMap data into a format that can be loaded into PostgreSQL. Mapnik can then be used to render the OSM data into maps with the appearance the user wants.

Platforms[edit]

Mapnik is a cross platform toolkit that runs on Windows, Mac, Unix-like systems like Linux and Solaris (since release 0.4).

Usage[edit]

One of its many users is the OpenStreetMap project (OSM), which uses it in combination with an Apache Web Server module (mod_tile) and openstreetmap-carto style to render tiles that make up the OSM default layer.[4][5] Mapnik is also used by CloudMade,[6] MapQuest,[7] and MapBox.[8]

License[edit]

Mapnik is free software and is released under LGPL (GNU Lesser General Public Licence).

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Release 3.1.0". 8 January 2021. Retrieved 13 January 2021.
  2. ^ Beautiful Maps as an explicit goal in the Mapnik FAQ
  3. ^ "Osm2pgsql".
  4. ^ OpenStreetMap's main Slippy Map layer
  5. ^ "Mapnik". OpenStreetMap Wiki.
  6. ^ "CloudMade". OpenStreetMap Wiki.
  7. ^ "MapQuest Mapnik Style". GitHub. 18 March 2019.
  8. ^ "Mapnik Performance". Development Seed. 24 September 2018. Archived from the original on 9 August 2020. Retrieved 27 January 2011.

External links[edit]