Rendering

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This page discusses rendering aspects of OSM data.

Rendering Methods

The main options :

  • Mapnik - Requires Linux, PostgreSQL and various C++ libraries. This is most suitable for high-end server tile generating. Designed to be fast running, but not particularly easy to set up.
  • Osmarender - XSLTs which do OSM XML to SVG transformation. tiles@home is a project which uses Osmarender to create a tile set for server a map layer alongside Mapnik's, but Osmarender can also be a good option for doing one-off renderings. This is (probably) the only way of getting maps in SVG format, which allows you to do post-processing tidy up tweaks.
  • Cyclemap



File:Osm cloudmade.jpg Osm mapnik.jpg Osm osmarenderer.jpg
Cloudmade Mapnik Osmarender


You can easily see output from these two renderers, available as layers on the map. Rendering style.jpg

Other renderers:

  • Kosmos is a .NET (windows) application which is lightweight, in that it isn't designed for high performance rendering or huge volumes of data. However it is very flexible, and good option for one-off rendering.
  • CartoType - portable renderer and routing library. Runs on desktop & mobile Windows, and on Symbian OS. C++.
  • Cobra - Flexible, extensible and reasonably fast .Net renderer using anti grain library. Output can be either a PNG or a SVG file. Cobra is easy to set up and can be used to render custom tilesets.
  • osmrender.pl - simple maps easily drawn with PERL program. Uses *.osm as input
  • Pyrender - A collection of ideas, and some code in Python for various rendering server steps.
  • PHP rendering - Renderer in php. Not maintained.
  • Phprender - updated version of the above?
  • Anyone created others?