
Show HN: A free collection of maps for every country in the world, in 11 sizes - robinhood
https://github.com/djaiss/mapsicon
======
xfax
Great effort!

Unfortunately, you're likely to get a bunch of requests for changes since
there are a bunch of places where geo-political boundaries are murky at best.

For example, your map for India
([https://github.com/djaiss/mapsicon/blob/master/asia/in/1024....](https://github.com/djaiss/mapsicon/blob/master/asia/in/1024.png))
shows the boundary as the line of control with Pakistan and China, instead of
the boundary which India claims (based on pre-war demarcations,
[http://www.mapsofindia.com/images2/india-
map.jpg](http://www.mapsofindia.com/images2/india-map.jpg))

~~~
nostromo
It'd be a fun project to change political boundaries, location names (Sea of
Japan / East Sea), and map orientation (who is at the center?) based on each
visitor's geolocation.

The world: _according to you._

~~~
aeontech
Google maps already does that. [1]

[1]
[http://www.menasborders.com/menasborders/news/article/871/Go...](http://www.menasborders.com/menasborders/news/article/871/Google_in_trouble_again_over_Kashmir_map/)

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Samuel_Michon
How is this better than existing projects like Wikimedia’s vector maps?

[http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:SVG_maps_by_count...](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:SVG_maps_by_country)

~~~
frank_boyd
Thanks!

This should have been the post...

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hnriot
I think if you read all the comments you'll realize why you couldn't sell
these. They aren't maps, they are riddled with errors, they are not even in a
vector scalable format.

~~~
seszett
Yeah, IMO Natural Earth[0] data is much more valuable, and easy to get into
any format one could need. Countries would be covered by the "Admin 0 –
Countries" file[1].

[0][http://www.naturalearthdata.com/](http://www.naturalearthdata.com/)

[1][http://www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/10m-cultural-
vecto...](http://www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/10m-cultural-
vectors/10m-admin-0-countries/)

~~~
nkoren
> easy to get into any format one could need

Okay, I'll bite. How would one get these into SVG? I haven't found anything as
straightforward as an SHP->SVG converter.

~~~
awor
I havent used this, but I've seen it posted a few times on various GIS type
places:
[http://www.duif.net/qgis/simplesvg/](http://www.duif.net/qgis/simplesvg/)

Not sure if this would fit your needs, or if it's any good

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dc_ploy
I prefer my maps in SVG.
[http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:SVG_maps_by_count...](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:SVG_maps_by_country)

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nathanb
I'm not sure that you know what the word map actually means.

This is a free collection of country images, or silhouettes, but only in the
loosest possible definition of the term could these be considered maps.

Not trying to belittle your efforts; merely your advertising.

~~~
hnriot
yeah, exactly. I was helping my 6th grader last night on "Earth Science"
(scoped at California) and we covered maps and their definition. One of the
primary prerequisite for a map is having physical features like rivers,
mountains etc.

~~~
jameshart
So, to be clear, you're saying this is not a map:
[http://cdn.myzipcodemap.com/statemaps/CA.PDF;](http://cdn.myzipcodemap.com/statemaps/CA.PDF;)
this is not a map: [http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/standard-tube-
map.pdf](http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/standard-tube-map.pdf) ...

~~~
jack-r-abbit
The first one won't load for me. The second is a map, IMO... as it contains
"physical features" like the train tubes, wheelchair ramps, bathrooms, etc

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bodnerdan
The map for Austria
([https://github.com/djaiss/mapsicon/blob/master/europe/at/102...](https://github.com/djaiss/mapsicon/blob/master/europe/at/1024.png))
doesn't depict Austria, but its state Carinthia
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carinthia_(state)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carinthia_\(state\))).

Otherwise, I like your project and the initiative of open sourcing it. Could
be a nice resource for making a geo-quiz or similar.

~~~
robinhood
Sorry for the mistake, will fix this.

~~~
Spikefu
Also, the one for gb shows Northern Ireland. Great Britain doesn't include any
of the Irish island. That would be the United Kingdom. There's a quick
overview showing the differences here: [http://resources.woodlands-
junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questi...](http://resources.woodlands-
junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/britain.html)

Nice work though. I can see a lot of ways these could be useful.

~~~
handelaar
Nope. The ISO3166 code for the United Kingdom is 'gb'.

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seszett
FYI, tf lacks several territories (it only depicts the main island of
Kerguelen) but above all, Asia is probably not the continent I would have
chosen for a collection of islands near Antarctica. It's usually (as in
timezones, for example) put in an "Indian" group which also includes
Madagascar, the Maldives, Mauritius, and other Indian ocean territories.

Another point: it's not actually a list of _countries_ but a list of entities
that have iso codes, ie. French overseas departements are listed separately
from mainland, except for Corsica.

Looking at the France map, I find that the boundaries are a bit out of shape,
as if they were a bit "deflated" (the Ardennes point, Crozon peninsula, or
Corsica cape, are very thin lines, and even Normandy looks skinny). I'm not
sure why.

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um304
I like Pakistan map
([https://github.com/djaiss/mapsicon/blob/master/asia/pk/1024....](https://github.com/djaiss/mapsicon/blob/master/asia/pk/1024.png)),
thanks for adding my country :)

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rkv
Why not vector format?

~~~
robinhood
Well, I created them one year ago using Fireworks. I didn't understand the
importance of saving them in .svg back then. Now I do :-) I'm planning to
export all the vectors to Illustrator, then saving them in .svg, then putting
them in Github too.

~~~
roel_v
You didn't seriously trace all maps in Fireworks, did you? Do you realize you
can download shapefiles for all countries from multiple places on the net, and
then render them at all desired sizes and styles with an afternoon worth of
programming?

~~~
robinhood
Yeah - I've been really dumb on this one, I know :-)

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jjsz
There's an issue with Puerto Rico:
[https://github.com/djaiss/mapsicon/issues/1](https://github.com/djaiss/mapsicon/issues/1).

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isalmon
Nicely done!

Minor things, but I was surprised to find Russia in 'Asia' folder. In most
cases (sport for example) it's considered Europe.

~~~
lake99
This, of course, brings us to the question, "What are continents?" [1]

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uBcq1x7P34](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uBcq1x7P34)

~~~
robinhood
Again, depending on the wikipedia article, Russia can be considered in Europe,
in Asia or in Eurasia. So tricky. Which norm to follow?

~~~
anonymfus
If you have distinction between Europe and Asia, you put Russia and some other
smaller countries in both. If you have only Eurasia, you don't have problem.
You don't put Europe, Asia and Eurasia in one flat classification, because
Eurasia includes Europa and Asia.

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redox_
Any chance you could build a 2013-ready (flat?) version of timezonepicker.com
?

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jeffpersonified
Why not vector/SVG?

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djfergus
MY only shows peninsula Malaysia - missing the Borneo States...

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humbyvaldes
I don't see Alaska and Hawaii in the namerica / us

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youknowwhoami
as a chinese, I don't understand why you make China and Taiwan separately.

~~~
seszett
Probably because they are two different countries for all intents and
purposes, and from the point of view of most of the world except for mainland
China.

The fact that Taiwan citizens need a (kind of) visa to enter mainland China is
also a clear message that they aren't citizens of the same country.

Any other claim is political bullshit.

