Mapnik
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Original author(s) | Artem Pavlenko |
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Developer(s) | The Mapnik Contributors |
Stable release | 4.0.2[1] ![]() |
Repository | |
Written in | C++ |
Operating system | Cross-platform |
License | LGPL |
Website | mapnik |
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]- ^ "Release 4.0.2". 21 August 2024. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
- ^ Beautiful Maps as an explicit goal in the Mapnik FAQ
- ^ "Osm2pgsql".
- ^ OpenStreetMap's main Slippy Map layer
- ^ "Mapnik". OpenStreetMap Wiki.
- ^ "CloudMade". OpenStreetMap Wiki.
- ^ "MapQuest Mapnik Style". GitHub. 18 March 2019.
- ^ "Mapnik Performance". Development Seed. 24 September 2018. Archived from the original on 9 August 2020. Retrieved 27 January 2011.