[OSM-talk] surface=unpaved

Richard Fairhurst richard at systemed.net
Tue Jan 11 17:06:10 GMT 2011


Asztalos Attila wrote:
> On 11-Jan-2011 15:51, Richard Mann wrote:
>> Which is not to say that knowing which roads are cobbled 
>> wouldn't be handy sometimes (but I probably think of this 
>> as something you need to render for yourself (cue ad for 
>> Maperitive...))
>
> I certainly see the merit of the argument "the data is in there, 
> nobody stops you from using it", but the fact is that even a 
> lot of the other OSM-data-using map sites use the default 
> mapnik and osmarender basemaps

The two aren't contradictory.

Try playing with Maperitive, or Osmarender, or Mapnik, or Halcyon, or
whatever, to have a go at rendering it yourself. Keep playing until you've
got something that looks simple, intuitive and neat. When you've got this
really great rendering, even if it's just a static file, post it somewhere.
If any of the main stylesheet maintainers like it, they could incorporate it
into their work.

Sometimes great work in OSM just comes out of the blue like that. For me,
the single best moment in Potlatch 2 so far was when someone suddenly turned
up with an excellent patch to support tagging multiple objects, a problem
I'd pretty much given up on as "far too hard". Maybe you might do the same
with a rendering idea.

If I could give you two particular bits of cartographic advice:

- Be selective. Showing everything at every zoom level produces a horrid
map. It might often be more effective just to have, say, two styles (the
standard one for "paved road", one for "unpaved road"), and relegate really
crappy tracks (e.g. tracktype=grade5) to a path style instead. A different
style for every surface type would be confusing. 

- Learn _not_ to use colour. One of the things I really like about Ordnance
Survey Landranger maps is their consistent dot/dash scheme for rights of
way: . . . . for footpaths, - - - - - for bridleways, -.-.-.-.-.- for
byways. All three are the same colour. Colour is a great tool but there's
much, much more to map design. 

cheers
Richard


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