OSM on Paper

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OpenStreetMap offers many possibilities for creating high resolution paper maps. Unlike commercial map services such as Mapquest and Google Maps, there are few restrictions on what you can do with OSM images.

Basic Export Tab

The main Export tab on the openstreetmap.org front page, can export arbitrary map areas within a limited range of resolution, suitable for simple situations. The pdf export is suitable for printing on high resolution printers. Bitmap output formats are available, but as the resolution is increased the font size gets smaller and text readability does not improve.

Simple web interfaces for printing OSM maps

MapOSMatic street index

• Field Papers ([1]) (new) - Nice multipage atlas printing options. Simple area / page picker interface. Nice black and white printable rendering style.
• Walking-Papers (walking-papers.org) - popular service as precursor to Field Papers
• MapOSMatic (maposmatic.org) - Generate PNG, PDF or SVG map with a grid and index of the streets
• OpenPaperMaps - a webservice basing upon the TownGuide tool
• OpenStreetPosters [2] - PDFs from stamen tiles

Other tools specifically for producing printable maps

• MapPDF for vector PDF renderings
• Mapapel (Mapapel.com) Printable city maps based on OSM data.
• TownGuide (townguide.webhop.net) PDF Map Generator with street index and index of user selectable Points of Interest.
• Osmbook is a program that can print multiple-page map books out of OSM data with a gridded overview, a page index of all printed labels, and optional subgridded pages.
• MapBook (MapBook)
• OSM-Atlas creates a PDF street atlas suitable for printing.
• Generic Mapping Tools (gmt.soest.hawaii.edu) is a collection of tools to produce high quality scientific maps; GMT input files can be derived from OSM e. g. via PostgreSQL/PostGis and the GDAL ogr2ogr conversion utility
• Smrender is a generic rule-based renderer for printable charts mainly developed to produce sea charts (www.abenteuerland.at/smrender).

As a big image map

There are many ways of getting a map image which you can then print out.

Generating from existing tile sets

• Static map images - Services to generate a map image with specified centre point and dimensions
  • StaticMap ([3]) - Interface to pick from several styles
  • MapQuest Open Static Maps ([4]) - Static map images in the mapquest style
  • bigmap ([5]) - Forms a big map arranging tile images side by side. Interface to adjust the view. Download a perl script to generate a stitched together image. This results in a very big bitmap image which allows you to print at high resolution, although font size can be a problem.
  • Category:Tile stitching - Lists these and other tools which can download tiles and stitch them together to form a large (hi-res) image.

Rendering an image

Big printout of a Mapnik rendered image

See Rendering for a full list of options and details for setting up your own rendering software.

• Mapnik is the renderer used to create the default tile layer on the main OSM homepage. It can output SVG.
• Maperitive is a desktop application for interactive mapping, with many tools and functions, including exporting to bitmaps and SVG files. It works on Windows, Linux and Mac. Maperitive is successor to Kosmos. The latest version can now generate Walking Papers-like maps.
• Mapweaver is another perl application with customized output.
• Merkaartor is desktop OSM editor that can output SVG and bitmaps using presets and editable styles.
• osmrender.pl is a small PERL program that can be customized easily and draws simple maps.
• Osmarender renders an SVG map image which can generate a high-quality raster image.

Note that many of these renderers can be configured for creating your own tiles, and you might then follow the tile-stitching approaches listed above

Other links / tutorials

• Create your own maps using OpenStreetMap - Step-by-step tutorial on use-it.be using JOSM, Osmarender, and Inkscape
• Osmarender restguide - Script to create a restaurant guide using osmarender
• Mapnik Example - how to use Mapnik on your own PC to render maps from OpenStreetMap data.
• Add a Compass Rose to your map
• To make a large map that you can print out on a normal printer see Maps for developing countries