[OSM-dev] Default map style on osm.org

[Peter K]

Hi Andy, hi Frederik, hi Maarten,

>> I know that this is highly subjective: But why has the default map
>> style to be that ugly? I don't mean it as a rant, I know how difficult
>> it is to create something like this. I only say that it is 'ugly'
>> because I know there are a lot better and several alternatives.
>>
>> What do I mean with 'ugly'? I mean, besides the ugly bing-magenta for
>> country lines and some texts the style is very confusing - too many
>> unimportant information are packed on especially the higher zoom
>> levels (smaller than 12). Or the contrast to see main roads is just
>> too low. Not sure.
>
> As you say: it's highly subjective.
> I have no problem with the default OSM style at all. The only thing is
> that from zooms 8 and lower I think the landuse may be less prominent.
> Some time ago someone showed a new lowzoom renderer that looked rather
> nice.
> I also don't see a big difference between the .de and the default map.
> The two differences are that .de has red-yellow motorways (in the
> style of a lot of paper maps) and that the general theme is less red
> and more green.

Yes, .de and default are not that different. But I think .de is one step
into a good direction with somehow more contrast colours. And yes, the
landuse is also one thing which is confusing to me (and others).


> If you follow these lists for a while (and possibly the enhancement
requests filed in trac or github for the map style)
> then you will see that we have many many people keen on adding more
and more detail to the map.

Exactly that is what is the problem: too detailed on overview zoom
levels. But it is good to hear that there will be progress on the style
- not only on the internals (which is of course really great - see below).


> We're trying to keep the default map usable but at the same time it is
also used by mappers to get feedback on their edits;

Ok, that is an argument. But I expect mappers to be able to switch the
layer in their settings in comparison to an average 'luser'.


> See the following video for some background regarding the current
state of the main map style
http://vimeopro.com/openstreetmapus/state-of-the-map-us-2013/video/68093876
> Since the conference, the new openstreetmap-carto stylesheets are now
live, and many small improvements are starting to show up.

I know. This is a really nice direction and lots of possibilities are
opened via this. But I've always heard/read that the style has to stay
the same. Could it be an option with Carto-CSS (in the future) that the
default style is less detailed and mappers can enable this if they want?
Who can decide and develop this in the future?

Regards,
Peter.