[OSM-talk] osmabrowser -- now with PNG support

[Nick Whitelegg]

Have experimentally added PNG generation to osmabrowser.

Users can now select whether to generate SVG (using osmarender) or PNG. PNG 
generation uses the Freemap renderer; however, the aim is to move it to 
ImageMagick, and generate much more "streetmap" style maps if the user 
desires, rather than the current countryside-orientated style.

Both osmarender and PNG modes use live data; presumably it's acceptable to use 
the API in this way, as long as the bounding box isn't too big? (some check 
could be built in here). The rationale behind this partly arose from a 
discussion on the list last week when Andy (I think) suggested that PNG 
generation would be good for people who couldn't get the SVG. 

More generally, I'm now feeling osmabrowser could be extended to generate maps 
in other formats, e.g. PDF. It does seem that in OSM there is a lot of 
interest in creating "static", printable maps - indeed these are seen more 
important perhaps than slippy maps - and thus it seems worthwhile extending 
the range of formats which these maps are available in.

Do let me know if you think this is worthwhile.

Nick