MapTiler

Last updated
MapTiler AG
Company type Private
Industry Maps
Founded2018;6 years ago (2018)
Headquarters
Zug
,
Switzerland
Key people
Petr Pridal (CEO)
Website maptiler.com

MapTiler is a Swiss provider of custom online maps for websites and applications. [1] [2]

Contents

History

MapTiler was one of the companies pioneering map tile implementation. [3] It started as an open source software product in 2008 used by libraries to turn digitised paper maps into tiled web maps. [4] MapTiler converts data into tiles that can be used as a slippy map on a website. [5] A set of tiles is created for each zoom level along with an XML file. [6]

By 2018, MapTiler had become a maps API with the capability of providing ad-free personalised maps in both online and offline environments. [7] These developments along with the inclusion of satellite imagery from Sentinel-2 and Airbus led to them being winners of the Airbus Multi-Data Challenge organised as part of the Copernicus Masters 2018. [8]

Data sources and technology

The maps provided by MapTiler are created using open data sources, such as OpenStreetMap [9] and ESA, [10] and from purchased proprietary data sources, such as Maxar Technologies. [11]

The original MapTiler software for turning raster images and vector geographical data into map tiles for interactive maps became MapTiler Desktop [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Esri</span> Geospatial software & SaaS company

Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., doing business as Esri, is an American multinational geographic information system (GIS) software company headquartered in Redlands, California. It is best known for its ArcGIS products. With a 40% market share in 2011, Esri is one of the world's leading supplier of GIS software, web GIS and geodatabase management applications.

A GIS file format is a standard for encoding geographical information into a computer file, as a specialized type of file format for use in geographic information systems (GIS) and other geospatial applications. Since the 1970s, dozens of formats have been created based on various data models for various purposes. They have been created by government mapping agencies, GIS software vendors, standards bodies such as the Open Geospatial Consortium, informal user communities, and even individual developers.

A GIS software program is a computer program to support the use of a geographic information system, providing the ability to create, store, manage, query, analyze, and visualize geographic data, that is, data representing phenomena for which location is important. The GIS software industry encompasses a broad range of commercial and open-source products that provide some or all of these capabilities within various information technology architectures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manifold System</span>

Manifold System is a geographic information system (GIS) software package developed by Manifold Software Limited that runs on Microsoft Windows. Manifold System handles both vector and raster data, includes spatial SQL, a built-in Internet Map Server (IMS), and other general GIS features.

MrSID is an acronym that stands for multiresolution seamless image database. It is a file format developed and patented by LizardTech for encoding of georeferenced raster graphics, such as orthophotos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OpenStreetMap</span> Collaborative project to create a free editable map of the world

OpenStreetMap is a website that uses an open geographic database which is updated and maintained by a community of volunteers via open collaboration. Contributors collect data from surveys, trace from aerial photo imagery or satellite imagery, and also import from other freely licensed geodata sources. OpenStreetMap is freely licensed under the Open Database License and as a result commonly used to make electronic maps, inform turn-by-turn navigation, assist in humanitarian aid and data visualisation. OpenStreetMap uses its own topology to store geographical features which can then be exported into other GIS file formats. The OpenStreetMap website itself is an online map, geodata search engine and editor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">JUMP GIS</span>

Java Unified Mapping Program (JUMP) is a Java based vector and raster GIS and programming framework. Current development continues under the OpenJUMP name.

gvSIG Desktop application for working with geographic data

gvSIG, geographic information system (GIS), is a desktop application designed for capturing, storing, handling, analyzing and deploying any kind of referenced geographic information in order to solve complex management and planning problems. gvSIG is known for having a user-friendly interface, being able to access the most common formats, both vector and raster ones. It features a wide range of tools for working with geographic-like information.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">QGIS</span> Open-source desktop GIS software

QGIS is a geographic information system (GIS) software that is free and open-source. QGIS supports Windows, macOS, and Linux. It supports viewing, editing, printing, and analysis of geospatial data in a range of data formats. QGIS was previously also known as Quantum GIS.

The Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo), is a non-profit non-governmental organization whose mission is to support and promote the collaborative development of open geospatial technologies and data. The foundation was formed in February 2006 to provide financial, organizational and legal support to the broader Libre/Free and open-source geospatial community. It also serves as an independent legal entity to which community members can contribute code, funding and other resources.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GDAL</span> Translator library for raster and vector geospatial data formats

The Geospatial Data Abstraction Library (GDAL) is a computer software library for reading and writing raster and vector geospatial data formats, and is released under the permissive X/MIT style free software license by the Open Source Geospatial Foundation. As a library, it presents a single abstract data model to the calling application for all supported formats. It may also be built with a variety of useful command line interface utilities for data translation and processing. Projections and transformations are supported by the PROJ library.

JTS Topology Suite is an open-source Java software library that provides an object model for Euclidean planar linear geometry together with a set of fundamental geometric functions. JTS is primarily intended to be used as a core component of vector-based geomatics software such as geographical information systems. It can also be used as a general-purpose library providing algorithms in computational geometry.

MapServer is an open-source development environment for building spatially enabled internet applications, built in the C language, and is widely known as one of the fastest Web mapping engines available. It can run as a CGI program or via MapScript which supports several programming languages. MapServer can access hundreds of data formats, any raster or vector format supported by GDAL, and reprojections on-the-fly are handled by PROJ. MapServer was originally developed by Steve Lime, then working at the University of Minnesota — so, it was previously referred to as "UMN MapServer", to distinguish it from commercial "map servers"; today it is commonly referred to as just "MapServer", and is maintained by the MapServer Project Steering Committee (PSC). MapServer was originally developed with support from NASA, which needed a way to make its satellite imagery available to the public.

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Web mapping or an online mapping is the process of using, creating, and distributing maps on the World Wide Web, usually through the use of Web geographic information systems. A web map or an online map is both served and consumed, thus, web mapping is more than just web cartography, it is a service where consumers may choose what the map will show.

Mapnik is an open-source mapping toolkit for desktop and server based map rendering, written in C++. Artem Pavlenko, the original developer of Mapnik, set out with the explicit goal of creating beautiful maps by employing the sub-pixel anti-aliasing of the Anti-Grain Geometry (AGG) library. Mapnik now also has a Cairo rendering backend. For handling common software tasks such as memory management, file system access, regular expressions, and XML parsing, Mapnik utilizes the Boost C++ libraries. An XML file can be used to define a collection of mapping objects that determine the appearance of a map, or objects can be constructed programmatically in C++, Python, and Node.js.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digimap</span>

Digimap is a web mapping and online data delivery service developed by the EDINA national data centre for UK academia. It offers a range of on-line mapping and data download facilities which provide maps and spatial data from Ordnance Survey, British Geological Survey, Landmark Information Group and OceanWise Ltd Ltd.,, Getmapping Ltd, the Environment Agency, OpenStreetMap, CollinsBartholomew Ltd, and various other sources.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SpatiaLite</span> Spatial extension to SQLite

SpatiaLite is a spatial extension to SQLite, providing vector geodatabase functionality. It is similar to PostGIS, Oracle Spatial, and SQL Server with spatial extensions, although SQLite/SpatiaLite aren't based on client-server architecture: they adopt a simpler personal architecture. i.e. the whole SQL engine is directly embedded within the application itself: a complete database simply is an ordinary file which can be freely copied and transferred from one computer/OS to a different one without any special precaution.

Leaflet is a JavaScript library used to build web mapping applications. It allows developers without a GIS background to display tiled web maps hosted on a public server, with optional tiled overlays. It can load feature data from GeoJSON files, style it and create interactive layers, such as markers with popups when clicked.

Vector tiles, tiled vectors or vectiles are packets of geographic data, packaged into pre-defined roughly-square shaped "tiles" for transfer over the web. This is an emerging method for delivering styled web maps, combining certain benefits of pre-rendered raster map tiles with vector map data. As with the widely used raster tiled web maps, map data is requested by a client as a set of "tiles" corresponding to square areas of land of a pre-defined size and location. Unlike raster tiled web maps, however, the server returns vector map data, which has been clipped to the boundaries of each tile, instead of a pre-rendered map image.

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References

  1. "MapTiler dominates the Christmas edition of the CzechInvest Start-up Challenge". CzechInvest. Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic. 5 December 2019. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
  2. Duskova, Marketa (3 March 2020). "Winning the "space Oscars" helped us, says the founder of the MapTiler startup". iDNES. MAFRA media group. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
  3. Netek, Rostislav; Masopust, Jan; Pavilcek, Frantisek; Pechanec, Vilem (6 February 2020). "Performance Testing on Vector vs. Raster Map Tiles—Comparative Study on Load Metrics". ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information. 9 (2): 9. Bibcode:2020IJGI....9..101N. doi: 10.3390/ijgi9020101 .
  4. Fleet, Christopher; Pridal, Petr (2012-11-29). "Open source technologies for delivering historical maps online - case studies at the National Library of Scotland". The Journal of the Association of European Research Libraries . 22 (3): 247. doi:10.18352/lq.8052 . Retrieved 19 April 2024.
  5. Muehlenhous, Ian (10 December 2012). Web Cartography: Map Design for Interactive and Mobile Devices. CRC Press. p. 213. ISBN   9781439876237.
  6. Peterson, Michael (28 March 2014). Mapping the Cloud. Guilford Publications. p. 321. ISBN   9781462510412.
  7. "MapTiler - Maps API for Your Apps - Copernicus Masters". Copernicus Masters. European Commission. Retrieved 19 April 2024.
  8. Plumley, Alan (5 December 2018). "MapTiler wins Airbus Challenge of the Copernicus Masters 2018". Geoconnexion. GeoConnexion Ltd. Retrieved 19 April 2024.
  9. "MapTiler's international growth results in a Swiss launch". StartUpTicker.ch. startupticker.ch. 26 May 2021. Retrieved 19 April 2024.
  10. Cozzens, Tracy (2 February 2022). "Massive global map provided free from MapTiler". GPS World. North Coast Media LLC. Retrieved 19 April 2024.
  11. Cepicky, Jachym (31 October 2023). "Global high-resolution satellite map". MapTiler News. MapTiler. Retrieved 17 April 2024.
  12. "Service - MapTiler Desktop". Miami University Approved Applications. Miami University. Retrieved 19 April 2024.