[OSM-Talk-ZA] Tagging ground signs

[Glen Wilson]

Hi everybody

It seems a not uncommon practice to for place names to be markedin huge 
writing (on a hillside). They're very visible and have, I feel, some 
cartographic value.

Below is the start of a new tagging proposal.  I thought I'd throw it 
open to the list first before going to all the effort of putting 
something useless on the OSM Wiki 
<http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Proposed_features>.  This is just a 
startand I'll probably add more detail and examples as time allows.  I 
haven't done much tagging of these objects because I've only just 
figured out what to tag them with.

*Tagging*
I propose placing a way over the name from left to right (of the word, 
so if it's upside down in you editor...) then tagging it with 
tourism=ground_sign name=*.  That would probably be sufficient for the 
River 
<http://aerial.openstreetmap.org.za/?zoom=18&layers=B0&lat=-34.1142101&lon=21.2524555>sdale 
<http://aerial.openstreetmap.org.za/?zoom=18&layers=B0&lat=-34.1142101&lon=21.2524555> 
example.  For the Oord / Resort 
<http://aerial.openstreetmap.org.za/?zoom=18&layers=B0&lat=-30.5875051&lon=25.5080875> 
example,the way would simply contain multiple nodes to make it go around 
the corner.

Often these the signs are pictures, or written in a weird font that a 
renderer like Mapnik can't do justice to.  For these I propose tracing 
what you see on the ground and simply leaving the name=* tag blank.  You 
can still include the name by putting the letters you draw into a 
relation and tagging that with name=* (all the better to be able to 
search for it). The markings near Wakkerstroom 
<http://aerial.openstreetmap.org.za/?zoom=18&layers=B0&lat=-27.3728169&lon=30.1580294> 
might require this method.

Filled shapes can be created by using closed ways and multipolygon 
relations.  I haven't come across such examples, but I'm sure they're 
out there.

*Supplementary tags*

  * width=* to specify how wide a line should be drawn
  * color=* (or colour=?) to specify what you think it specifies
  * surface=* or something similar to say what it's made of.


*Examples*

  * Riversdale near guess where:
    http://aerial.openstreetmap.org.za/?zoom=18&layers=B0&lat=-34.1142101&lon=21.2524555
  * Oord/Resort marking near Gariep Dam:
    http://aerial.openstreetmap.org.za/?zoom=18&layers=B0&lat=-30.5875051&lon=25.5080875
  * Voortrekker markings near Wakkerstroom:
    http://aerial.openstreetmap.org.za/?zoom=18&layers=B0&lat=-27.3728169&lon=30.1580294

I'm curious if these appear anywhere else in the world, or if it's just 
a local thing. There are other considerations too, like are 
/ground_sign/ and /tourism/ the best tag names to use(think about 
highway=road and highway=unclassified for an OSM newbie)

What'd'ya think about that?

Later

Glen

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