
New OpenStreetMap tiles from Stamen: water color, black and white, terrain - drewda
http://maps.stamen.com
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lucianof
When I first looked at OpenStreetMap a couple years ago I dismissed it solely
because I didn't like the tile design. But now I see more and more really
beautiful designs popping up (e.g. also those from <http://mapbox.com/>) and I
expect OSM to gain a lot of importance in the next years (overtaking Google
Maps maybe?). These 3rd-party tile designs a beautiful example of how much
more can be done with data that's truly open!

The one thing I don't understand is who pays for hosting it. Once everyone
uses OSM, won't it be prohibitively expensive for a non-profit to serve it?
Maybe I'm wrong and it's not that much of an issue. Does anyone have an idea
how much it costs Google to serve the Google Maps API? Wikipedia is in the
same situation, and they solve it with their donation pleas. Maybe it would
make sense if a fraction of our ISP bill automatically goes to the most
visited non-profit websites. They offer kind of a public good to everyone,
after all.

~~~
vidarh
"Everyone" won't ever use OSM - its license is prohibitively restrictive for a
lot of uses.

It's great for anyone that don't want to combine it with data they can't
release, but for anyone that needs to mash it up with proprietary data, it's a
non-starter by design. I think a lot of people don't realize this, as I've
seen more than one company use OSM data in ways that either puts them in
conflict with the license or will force them to open data they've previously
been very protective of...

But as others have noted, most people will need to host themselves or pay
someone to host it for them once they reach certain thresholds.

(disclosure: I've got an interest in a company in the GIS space that can't use
OSM data exactly because of the license, so I do have a vested interest in it)

~~~
liotier
There is nothing that restricts the display of a proprietary data layer on top
of an OSM render : in the resulting mashup, the variously licensed sources of
data each remain in its own layer and there is therefore no mixing of
conflicting licenses.

On the other hand, if you produce new data by processing OSM data or mixing it
with your own, then you are constrained by the bounds of Openstreetmap's
license.

~~~
vidarh
> On the other hand, if you produce new data by processing OSM data or mixing
> it with your own, then you are constrained by the bounds of Openstreetmap's
> license.

.. such as the moment you provide a function to generate PDF versions of the
maps, or any number of other features that end up mixing the data. So in
effect you either accept severely limiting your features, or you use other
sources of map data.

~~~
liotier
No - as long as the other items have no dependency on or interaction with the
OSM layer, the generated PDF is clear of license conflict: it is still merely
a composite display of independent sources, not a work produced on the basis
of OSM data. If the OSM data was rendered without modification then it is not
necessary to release the other data sources. Cf.
[http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Open_Data_License/Use_Cas...](http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Open_Data_License/Use_Cases#Map_composite_from_OSM_and_commercial_data)

~~~
vidarh
They've changed their tune then, because that used to be explicitly called out
as an example of a grey area in the old license that they would be prevented
with the new license.

If that's correct then that's fantastic.

Given that it's contradictory to what used to be claimed, it still makes me
concerned about touching it without having a lawyer going over the license in
great detail, though...

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kubrickslair
Loved the watercolor tile.

And a plea to HN folks: I am working on a project, and it will be great if
someone can point me to a way to dynamically apply such a filter to vector
derived solid color images.

I am thinking of running a GIMP server, but I find the plugins available
limiting. I have very limited image processing experience, and this was not a
major part of the product, so had put it on the backburner. I will have access
to the edges/ vector images, so there is no need for accurate edge detection-
but such organic edges would add a lot if there is a way to do it.

~~~
forgottenpaswrd
The most important thing in watercolors is the texture of the paper.

They use a texture for sea, another for land, and so on. If you look at the
see you will see how the sea and land repeats itself. You will need to make a
seamless texture that you can repeat ad infinitum. Those are made with filters
on photoshop or GIMP, or you could crreate them using fractals(very difficult
for it to feel like a realistic watercolor, that is the reason they did not
used them).

I don't like GIMP for that, plugins had a very confusing syntax, I prefer
ImageMagick or better I use my own programs. Using Photoshop you can do it
"with your hand"(selecting a vector shape, grow it with border transition,
apply texture, and repeat), record and then use the macro for all your
vectors.

I would use an OpenCL or CUDA program, faster and way more control.

~~~
kubrickslair
Thanks, looking at the right textures, instead of texture generating
algorithms helped here. I think I will purchase a bunch, and that should
suffice.

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Northsider
Great to see OSM projects advancing more and more each day. I love the style
of the Toner profile...minimalist and simple.

As someone in the digital mapping industry, I really wish we'd open our data
up a bit more.

~~~
guan
I also love the high contrast look of Toner. Way too many OSM styles, and non-
Google maps in general, have too little contrast.

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kitsune_
I wish there were tiles similar to swiss cartographer Eduard Imhof's shaded
relief maps. In my opinion, this is slowly but surely becoming a lost art
form: <http://www.library.ethz.ch/exhibit/imhof/imhof3.html>,
<http://www.library.ethz.ch/exhibit/imhof/imhof8_e.html>

~~~
ZeroGravitas
There are already tiles like this, including the ones at this link. It seems
like Imhof was part of the inspiration for creating them:

<http://mike.teczno.com/notes/osm-us-terrain-layer.html>

[http://mike.teczno.com/notes/osm-us-terrain-
layer/foreground...](http://mike.teczno.com/notes/osm-us-terrain-
layer/foreground.html)

Though those are US only, similar tech is available for worldwide maps.

Compare:

<http://www.library.ethz.ch/exhibit/imhof/images/d1.1.jpg>

[http://hikebikemap.de/?zoom=9&lat=46.58402&lon=7.946...](http://hikebikemap.de/?zoom=9&lat=46.58402&lon=7.94684&layers=00B00TFFFF)

[http://hikebikemap.de/?zoom=9&lat=46.58402&lon=7.946...](http://hikebikemap.de/?zoom=9&lat=46.58402&lon=7.94684&layers=B0000TFFFF)

The primary differences are choice of colorscheme and the fact that the OSM
examples are targetted at screen DPI and the paper map was probably intended
to be wall mounted.

That's not a limitation of OSM, you can target different resolutions and print
to large paper too, it's just not as common. Here's an example:

[http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:3274048625_815c60625...](http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:3274048625_815c60625e.jpg)

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ChrisNorstrom
I. Want. That. Watercolor Filter. It is beautiful and warm, and makes me
happy. How can I get it, how can I use it? I checked the site and their blog
but can't find anything about it.

~~~
tmcw
Original paper is here: <http://otherthings.com/uw/watercolor/> (though I
think some crappy academia links are broken)

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twelvechairs
Love to see creative renderings of maps, especially OSM data!

The texture of the 'watercolour' option is very impressive, but (to be
critical) I wonder about the usefulness of it without labels and with the
fuzziness of roads (some stop then start again, some meld into others which
actually don't meet).

I love the toner option though :) Fantastic!

And the terrain map is great too. Certaintly easier to get a grip on than the
OSM cyclemap (contour lines).

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micheljansen
Although the Watercolor design is the most beautiful, I'll probably end up
using the Toner tiles the most. They are perfect for paper prototypes and
mockups!

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Androsynth
In another case where users have been trained by google product methodologies:
I just got pissed because scrolling my mouse wheel doesn't zoom.

~~~
yellowbkpk
The map framework they are using supports mouse wheel zoom but i think they
chose not to use it so you could use your scroll wheel to scroll the page.

~~~
robin_reala
I do that quite often when embedding maps. It’s a toss up between the UI help
of scrolling, and the interruption of normal page scroll.

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sad_panda
The watercolor tile set is beautiful.

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drewda
See also: [http://mapbox.com/blog/mapbox-light-global-base-map-
alternat...](http://mapbox.com/blog/mapbox-light-global-base-map-alternative/)

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cicloid
Does anybody remember the 8 bit mapping project?

Having the source styles for that style would be awesome. But maybe seeing the
source for these I could get some ideas.

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kevincennis
getting a 500 on all the image requests

~~~
untog
Yeah, it's definitely buckling under the strain right now. Mine did something
similar when I posted a map tile styling tutorial.

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waterlesscloud
Good to see a CC license use the "commercial" option. I wish more did.

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noduerme
Really, gorgeous work. The "Toner" version is really well done and incredibly
useful for anybody who needs to laser print / xerox a ton of maps. I can tell
the server's choking right now so I'm going to stop playing with it, but I
wanted to say the design choices here are truly excellent in balancing level
of detail with readability. Great job.

~~~
sad_panda
Really? In that tileset, bodies of water are like toner cartridge death. I bet
my printouts will start looking banded and faded after a few dozen pages of
it.

~~~
178
Granted, there could be a "mostly water" version of the toner tiles, but most
people are printing out the tiles of the land. But anyhow, if a little black
kills your cartridge you should get a new printer.

