I am happy to announce that after a long time we, the OpenStreetMap Carto maintainers, have prepared a new release of the OpenStreetMap Carto stylesheet (the default stylesheet on the OSM website). Once changes are deployed on openstreetmap.org it will take couple of days before all tiles show the new rendering.

Here are some details on the visible changes this release brings to the style.

Changing color of leisure=pitch to be more distinct and less similar to the water color

The color of leisure=pitch had a long time ago be adjusted to be less strong. But this change had resulted in pitches often being hard to distinguish in the map from water areas and other green areas even though pitches are a highly distinctive feature that is typically small in size - which calls for a strong color in principle. This modification changes the color of leisure=pitch to be more distinct and recognizable again and at the same time to harmonically integrate with the other colors used.

https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/pull/4480

thanks to Justin Gruca for implementing this change.

Fixing color of ref label for railway=subway_entrance

The color of labels for subway entrances (railway=subway_entrance) was not exactly the same as otherwise used for transportation symbols and this change fixed that inconsistency.

https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/pull/4835

thanks to kaneap for this change.

Fixes for highway=mini_roundabout rendering on various road types

There were several errors leading to inconsistent styling in the rendering of highway=mini_roundabout on some road types, which were fixed now with this change. This also adds support for highway=mini_roundabout, highway=turning_circle and highway=turning_loop on highway=trunk roads.

https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/pull/4904

thanks to Thomas Pétillon for implementing this change.

Fixing merge error in previous change of rendering natural=bay/natural=strait

previous changes to the labeling of natural=bay/natural=strait - which meant to unify display of bays/straits mapped with nodes, linear ways and polygons - were accidentally modified during merging and this change implements the labeling strategy that was originally meant to be implemented (together with some code cleanup).

https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/pull/4841

Removing point symbol rendering for golf=hole

golf=hole is by convention tagged on linear ways describing the route from the tee to the pin. It has previously been rendered on nodes as a synonym for golf=pin, but it is not used this meaning so this change removed that rendering to avoid counterproductive mapper feedback and to simplify the code.

https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/pull/4857

thanks to Benjamin Schultz Larsen for implementing this.

Restoring rendering for railway=platform + covered=yes

So far railway=platform with addon tag covered=yes was not rendered - just like railway=platform + location=underground and railway=platform + tunnel=yes. The first of these is now shown just like plain railway=platform - while the others are still hidden to avoid confusing mixing of underground features with above-the-ground elements. In addition, display of railway=platform is now consistent between linear way and polygon features.

https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/pull/4797

thanks to map-per for this change.

Adding rendering of roller_coaster=track

roller_coaster=track is now rendered on linear ways with a distinct line signature. This is done in a separate layer outside the road rendering system and supports bridge and tunnel tagging with a distinct styling.

https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/pull/4666

thanks to tjur0 for implementing this.

Adding rendering of landuse=flowerbed

The tag landuse=flowerbed is used by mappers to map areas were flowers are planted for decorative purposes. The tag started to increase strongly in use in 2020, is well defined and used with very good consistency. And it fits well into our existing scheme of green landcover rendering - so we had wanted to support this in OSM-Carto for some time. A suitable design was now developed with regular patterns of relatively subtle contrast - simple dots at z15 and z16 (on a grass color background) and small flower symbols at z17+.

https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/pull/4889

thanks to Mattijs Leon for implementing this change. Thanks also to Hungerburg, daganzdaanda and Jean-Marc Liotier for previous work on this issue.

Other changes

This release also includes various other, non-visible changes. For a full list of commits, see

https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/compare/v5.7.0…v5.8.0

Thanks

The OSM-Carto maintainers thank all contributors. Particular thanks go to the new contributors:

• Benjamin Schultz Larsen,
• dch0ph,
• kaneap,
• Matija Nalis,
• Mattijs Leon,
• Nicolas Peugnet,
• tjur0

As always, we welcome any bug reports at

https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/issues

We also invite anyone interested in contributing to the project. New contributors can find a list of issues that are suitable for less experienced style developers. We also have a list of bigger challenges of the project that need work.