Streets: new OpenMapTiles map style

Published May 15, 2018

OpenMapTiles has always encouraged the development of map services by giving an option to build a self-hosted map with open-source tools and by providing free non-commercial hosting. For those who support us with their paid plan, we introduce another premium service: a new Street map style.

Map with a clear roads’ hierarchy

Each map style should highlight only the information relevant to its primary objective. When we were designing new map style, we focused on transportation. Therefore the name Streets.

Streets style is a base map highlighting different transportation methods. Therefore we include roads, railway network, ferry routes, and airports. Moreover, it also shows all relevant POIs like bus stops, petrol stations or subway stations. 

Street style is a fresh alternative to Google Maps default style.

To highlight the roads’ hierarchy, each type of road is represented by different color. While the most saturated colors are representing major roads like highways, more pale colors are used in combination with thin lines for minor roads. By looking at the map, you can at the first look easily judge the overall network and make a quick decision.

Different types of transportation in Hong Kong and bilingual labels

Only relevant information for quick decision

When looking at a map, you want to capture all necessary information as fast as possible. On the other hand, placing too many details decreases the readability and it takes you longer to get oriented on a map. Therefore we carefully picked only relevant information for each zoom level like POIs, labels, minor roads, and others. As you zoom in, more details appear they disappear as you zoom out to give you clear overlook. Since this is our first version, there could still be some missing or redundant items, especially POIs. Any comments on this topic are very welcomed.

A good map should also help the person who is using it recognize the features of the real world on the map. On lower zoom levels, we are displaying the land use information which can be seen from a global satellite image. On the higher zoom levels, we show transparent 3D buildings to help a person with orienting in an urban jungle. The buildings can be turned off.

The map is fully customizable as our MapTiler Cloud supports creating own styles or derivatives of the existing ones with built-in WYSIWYG design tool.

As each of our map, the Streets style also includes a possibility to change the language. Currently, there are more than 50 languages supported.

Land use information which can be seen from a satellite image from a global satellite image.

All the map styles including Streets are visible as a browsable map on the MapTiler Cloud page or in the administration.