Basemaps Don't Have To Be Boring - Brandon Liu, Protomaps LLC

Basemaps Don't Have To Be Boring
Brandon Liu, Protomaps LLC
Basemaps for web mapping: boring, or exciting? Basemaps are an essential part of any web map, whether they're from Google, Esri or an OpenStreetMap-based provider. You might think basemaps are a "solved problem": choosing an existing off-the-shelf lets cartographers move on to more interesting problems. What if basemaps were exciting? What if, more importantly, interactive, global-scale basemaps could be downloaded, created and customized using simple open source tools? This talk will go over how to do just that using the Protomaps basemap, including data sources (Natural Earth, OSM, Overture), cartographic generalization strategies, label localization, and customization for the practical cartographer.
This presentation was made at the 2024 annual meeting of the North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS). For more information on NACIS, check out NACIS.org.