[OSM-newbies] svg output

[Vangelis Katsikaros]

Hello

I think this is the proper mailing list to ask these questions, I 
couldn't find any other more appropriate, and the forums were closed to 
new subscriptions.

What I want to do:

I want to create in SVG a map (Europe, Atlantic ocean, N America 
Greenland) with the continents as one shape (with fill). No details on 
the maps, no cities no country names, no nothing. Just the seashore line 
making a filled shape. I though I could use openstreetmaps, for this.

Problems:

a) when I output to SVG a small or big area no matter what scale I use 
the details of the shapes don't get simpler. Is there any way to get a 
simplified coastline, from OSM, just by increasing the scale?

b) I found out that a lot of information are not displayed in an SVG 
viewer, however, the data are contained in the SVG file, making it more 
bloated. For example, when I export a small area, this area is visible 
and rendered by an vector editor (like Inkscape) or a image viewer (like 
Eye of GNOME). However, if I ungroup all the shapes in inkscape then I 
found out that a bigger area is present but simply not visible. Is it 
possible to get rid of the extra data (appart from the area I have 
requested from OSM)?

c) when I export big areas I found out that the areas are tiled .For 
example Greenland is made of a lot of smaller tiles. If the tile is in 
the middle of the land, it's just a square, if it's in the coastline 
part of it is shaped according to the coastline. Is it possible to get a 
unified shape?

I am totally new to OSM and I don't know exactly what to look at. If I 
need to read some things first in order to understand, provide some links!

Regards
Vangelis Katsikaros

PS BTW, do you know the forums are closed to new subscriptions?