OpenStreetMap
I have notice some changes in the Mapnik render of this week.
Some of them were necessary (new icons for Restaurants, Fuel Stations, Bus Stops, Banks, ATMs, Hotels, Coffee Shops, Airports, etc.).
Some are neutral (New icons for Parking and Churches).
But other things do not look that nice (from the most annoying to the "it does not look good"):
-Everything is in a lighter color.
-Primaries, Secondaries, and Trunks without borders (at some zoom levels) or with very thin borders (at higher zoom levels) (CloudMade style).
-The train station icon is a small square instead of the regular red dot.
What do you thing of this changes? Are they permanent?
Discussion
Comment from Circeus on 15 October 2008 at 20:52
I'm neutral for most of those I've noticed, though I'm not a fan of the new parking icon.
Comment from andrewpmk on 16 October 2008 at 00:49
I think that the colors are too light, especially at lower zoom levels.
I do not like the new train station icon or the new parking icon.
Why is there an icon for restaurant and cafe but not fast food?
Comment from Circeus on 16 October 2008 at 02:01
Having had a better look, I think they are nice. They form a set that is, overall, better coordinated and less obnoxious. I was rather unhappy with either renderer's bus stops, but Mapnik's new ones are neat.
It seem new criteria are now applied for deciding which zoom level text matching zones and small POIs appear. I have three hospital in the same window, and the names are visible at different zoom levels.
Comment from wieland on 16 October 2008 at 10:18
Now highway=trunk is invisible if there is landuse=forest around. See:
http://openstreetmap.org/?lat=49.98323&lon=8.60327&zoom=15&layers=B000FTF
Comment from melb_guy on 16 October 2008 at 10:33
The changes are mostly an improvement over the previous rendering style, but there are still some things I would like to see, icons getting progressively larger as you zoom in further, instead of staying the same size (icons for restaurants and fuel for example, are far too small), icons for fast food POIs, name rendering for motorways as well as rendering of highway features such as chicanes and humps, traffic lights, gates and turning circles (cul-de-sacs). Thank you to any in charge of these changes to take feedback and further improve the map.
Comment from Julio_Costa_Zambelli on 16 October 2008 at 14:21
I am not convinced at all with the colors and the borders, and even though I am not a big fan of the CloudMade Mapnik render I am thinking of changing to it.
Comment from Mappo on 16 October 2008 at 19:06
I *think* it looks nicer at the the lower zoom levels, e.g. looking at Europe or the UK as a whole, but it's hard to tell without an A to B comparison as the changes seem quite subtle. The change in colour for industrial areas is welcome though.
Comment from Skywave on 17 October 2008 at 12:01
There is an ticket open about it: http://trac.openstreetmap.org/ticket/1269 . I am sure Steve8 / Steve Chilton will further improve the mapnik style as always.
Comment from wieland on 17 October 2008 at 12:36
The ticket is only about trunc/water and trunc/wood both are not nice.
I wrote about trunc/forest which is not in the ticket and looks even worse IMO.
Comment from wieland on 17 October 2008 at 12:50
Very nice is this
http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=50.05494&lon=8.64226&zoom=15&layers=B000FTF
there are serveral roads invisible :-)
Also trunk_links
This seems to be only in some tiles and some zoomlevels.
Comment from Skywave on 17 October 2008 at 15:33
It is in the ticket, just scroll down a bit and you will see a comment of me, which i wrote yesterday.
Comment from Julio_Costa_Zambelli on 17 October 2008 at 16:12
I do not want to start one of those back to the old facebook campaigns, but I want to know if there is any chance that this mapnik render will go back to the old way. Since I am not sure of how to display the CloudMade tiles in openlayers, and since I do not like completely (probably more than an 80%) the way they render mapnik either, I guess I will have to find the way to make my own render with the "old" specs (I do not know how to use the CM tiles in OpenLayers and want to render my own mapnik, that is quite funny.