Dear all,

Today, v4.20.0 of the OpenStreetMap Carto stylesheet (the default stylesheet on the OSM website) has been released. Once changes are deployed on the openstreetmap.org it will take couple of days before all tiles show the new rendering.

Changes include

• Progressive lightening major buildings fill and outline (#3659)
• Adding rendering for aboriginal areas (#3521)
• Dropping rendering of leisure=common (#3619)
• Adding missing oneway arrows for tracks and paths (#3614)
• Changing way_pixels limit to 750 for protected_area boundaries (#3661)
• Adding rendering for ref of track roads (#3654)
• Improving rendering of text labels on admin and nature-reserve borders (#3652)
• Changing way_pixels calculation to use scale_denominator (#3657)
• Fixing layering order for construction=* highway categories (#3646)
• Reducing saturation of pitch outline color (#3658)
• roads-text-ref-low-zoom: remove unused SQL CASE conditions in ORDER BY (#3680)

Thanks to all the contributors for this release, including almccon and Nakaner, new contributors.

For a full list of commits, see https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/compare/v4.19.0…v4.20.0

As always, we welcome any bug reports at https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/issues

Dear all,

Today, v4.19.0 of the OpenStreetMap Carto stylesheet (the default stylesheet on the OSM website) has been released. Once changes are deployed on the openstreetmap.org it will take couple of days before all tiles show the new rendering.

Changes include

• Adding rendering for boundary=protected_area (#3509)
• Nature reserve boundaries revision (#3574)
• Adding support of amenity=vending_machine (#3601)
• Adding more barrier icons (#3602)
• Changing allotments color and adding outline (#3625)
• Reducing priority of tourism=attraction and rendering from z17 (#3603)
• Changing tourism outline color (#3582)
• Making country borders thicker at z8 and z9 (#3563)
• Rendering parking from z14 (#3612)
• Starting to render most patterns at z13 instead of z14 (#3610)
• Changing zoom level and text size for place=hamlet (#3626)
• Rendering airport gate refs black instead of purple (#3620)
• Updating zoom levels by height for masts, towers and telescopes (#3536)
• Hiding underground parking (#3600)
• Rendering ref of minor roads more than once (#3627)
• Adjusting width of highway=construction (#3580)
• Selecting only motorway_link to tertiary_link as link (#3567)
• Reducing tertiary-link width (#3570)
• Changing certain amenity icons to grey (#3586)
• Converting springs to use ST_PointOnSurface and reformatting SQL (#3233)
• Adding “religious-icon” as color variable for #000000 (#3642)
• Adding “barrier-icon” color variable in #3f3f3f for barriers (#3643)
• Fixing inconsistency of leisure=ice_rink (#3598)
• Fixing label opacity for tourism features (#3616)
• Reverting lowzoom nobuilding test change (#3622)
• Removing trailing whitespace (#3637)

Thanks to all the contributors for this release.

For a full list of commits, see https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/compare/v4.18.0…v4.19.0

As always, we welcome any bug reports at https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/issues

Dear all,

Today, v4.18.0 of the OpenStreetMap Carto stylesheet (the default stylesheet on the OSM website) has been released. Once changes are deployed on the openstreetmap.org it will take couple of days before all tiles show the new rendering.

Changes include

• Adding rendering for healthcare tag scheme
  • Changing hospital icon
  • Changing healthcare color to red
• Changing natural=scrub color
• Changing landuse=allotments color and pattern
• Adding rendering for natural=cape
• Rendering leisure=ice_rink
• Adding rendering for man_made=crane
• Adding icons for shop=fabric and shop=carpet
• Updating icons for amenity=arts_centre, leisure=slipway, amenity=restaurant/amenity=food_court and man_made=storage_tank/man_made=silo
• Using dedicated icon for artwork_type=bust
• Rendering railway pattern on z12
• Showing labels of big states (like Alaska)
• Moving railway=tram_stop and station=subway later
• Adding rendering for more private POIs
• Removing smoothing in leisure=track and attraction=water_slide
• Using subway bridge style for subway construction bridges
• Rendering wind turbines names and other tweaks
• Changing man_made gray and text color, making text-dy uniform
• Small documentation and code fixes

Thanks to all the contributors for this release including tpetillon, a new contributor.

For a full list of commits, see https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/compare/v4.17.0…v4.18.0

As always, we welcome any bug reports at https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/issues

Dear all,

Today, v4.17.0 of the OpenStreetMap Carto stylesheet (the default stylesheet on the OSM website) has been released. Once changes are deployed on the openstreetmap.org it will take couple of days before all tiles show the new rendering.

Changes include

• Showing natural areas from z5
• Cleaning up medium zoom rendering, including:
  • Making societal amenities look like residential on z10-z12
  • Rendering motorway junction names from z13 instead of z12
  • Dropping buildings up to z13 instead of z12
  • Correctly dropping minor waterways from z13
  • Rendering intermittent streams/ditches/drains from z15
  • Reducing lightening of tramways
• Rendering religious landuse and place of worship lighter
• Adding text-repeat-distance for highway names
• Rendering dots for gastronomy objects on z17
• Changing icon for tourism=artwork
• Adding icons for memorial subtags
• Rendering man_made=telescope
• Rendering amenity=internet_cafe
• Adding icon for amenity=public_bookcase
• Adding icons for barrier=cattle_grid and barrier=stile
• Adding icon for leisure=fishing
• Rendering entrance for underground parking
• Rendering basin=detention/infiltration as intermittent water
• Tweaking outline of swimming pools and rendering it from z17
• Moving danger_area into landuse-overlay
• Buildings code rewrite

Thanks to all the contributors for this release including jeisenbe, a new contributor.

For a full list of commits, see https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/compare/v4.16.0…v4.17.0

As always, we welcome any bug reports at https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/issues

Dear all,

Today, v4.16.0 of the OpenStreetMap Carto stylesheet (the default stylesheet on the OSM website) has been released. Once changes are deployed on the openstreetmap.org it will take couple of days before all tiles show the new rendering.

Changes include

• Changing societal amenities color to less intensive
• Adding rendering for natural=strait
• Adding rendering for leisure=track on lines
• Adding icon for amenity=vehicle_inspection
• Adding icon for leisure=sports_centre + sport=swimming and leisure=swimming_area
• Adding icon for tourism=gallery
• Changing color for aeroway=apron in aerodromes
• Moving amenity=post_box to z19+
• Moving amenity=atm to z19+
• Replacing icon for information=tactile_model
• Ordering amenity_lines by layer
• Small documentation and code fixes

Thanks to all the contributors for this release including dryo, a new contributor.

For a full list of commits, see https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/compare/v4.15.0…v4.16.0

As always, we welcome any bug reports at https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/issues

Dear all,

Today, v4.15.0 of the OpenStreetMap Carto stylesheet (the default stylesheet on the OSM website) has been released. Once changes are deployed on the openstreetmap.org it will take couple of days before all tiles show the new rendering.

Changes include

• Changing gastronomy objects color to orange (affects restaurant, fast_food, ice_cream, food_court, bar, cafe, nightclub, pub and biergarten)
• Changing farmland and societal amenities (like school, hospital etc.) colors to fit better into the overall color systematic
• Adding rendering for man_made=wastewater_plant and man_made=water_works
• Adding icon for man_made=storage_tank and man_made=silo
• Adding icon for amenity=bicycle_repair_station
• Adding icon for leisure=amusement_arcade
• Adding icon for shop=bookmaker
• Adding icon for shop=trade and shop=wholesale
• Adding rendering for attraction=water_slide
• Rendering most of the road links thinner (affects trunk_link, primary_link, secondary_link)
• Moving manors to z16+
• Fixing missing country labels on z4 (affects Canada, Russia and Greenland)
• Small code and icon fixes

Thanks to all the contributors for this release.

For a full list of commits, see https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/compare/v4.14.0…v4.15.0

As always, we welcome any bug reports at https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/issues

First part was about why dense (well mapped) areas should be treated better than outdoor/rural areas. Today I will discuss rendering objects according to their size.

There are many types of maps and one of the most important property is their preferred use. OSM Carto has no special goals of this kind, it is meant to be general style. Unfortunately, it’s harder to develop because of this.

Putting all the things on the map according to their “importance” is misleading, because without clear goal it’s hard to tell what system should we apply to show some items more prominently than the others. In practice it seems that people tend to think mostly like “I want to find x” or “it was always like this”. But finding is better done by apps and we show many object types, so sticking to the old solutions will just highlight lack of clear rules eventually.

So - what could be the universal property of objects that we could use on the map? I think this is their size.

In a matter of fact, it is used a lot already. We use initial zoom levels to not show benches at the world level, because then the map would look more or less like this:

… See full entry

This entry is a copy of my comment in a discussion on some of the OSM Carto rendering ideas. It’s so general, that I think it makes sense to show it for more people. I have some more thoughts on this subject and I hope I will write them down too.

---

I believe the main obstacle for better coexistence of big cities and outdoor rendering is #1957 “equalizing” ticket being unresolved.

I think about “WMAs” (well-mapped areas), which are located in the big cities where mappers were active, that they make the biggest difference. They start to be very rich, because this is the reality, which was not well covered by mappers just a few years ago. We could rely on this incompleteness up to some point and render whatever was available without critically rethinking the whole system for years. But this is no longer true and the WMAs begin to be drastically more dense than outdoor areas. This is nobody’s fault, it’s just the unexpected consequence of the success of OSM in gathering all kind of data. Of course, we might stay with what we were showing before, but it’s just closing eyes to avoid noticing the constant change of OSM data. Something like taking the snapshot of some past moment and refusing to take more current ones, just because it’s more familiar for cartographers than trying to face these new challenges.

I like the outdoor rendering and when it doesn’t hurt, I’m happy to make it also rich. There are places where we outperform typical (if not all) outdoor maps with details, like for example here:

… See full entry

Dear all,

Yesterday, v4.14.0 of the OpenStreetMap Carto stylesheet (the default stylesheet on the OSM website) has been released and rolled out to the openstreetmap.org servers. It might take a couple of days before all tiles show the new rendering.

Changes include

• Added text-repeat-distance for waterways
• Added text-repeat-distance for railways
• Added icon for leisure=bowling_alley
• Added icon for leisure=outdoor_seating
• Added icon for leisure=bird_hide
• Added icon for shop=video
• Added icon for shop=paint
• Added icon for shop=massage
• Increased casing width of tertiary road on z12
• Standard text halo for fitness_centre and fitness_station
• Updated Docker images definitions
• Small documentation updates

Thanks to all the contributors for this release.

For a full list of commits, see https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/compare/v4.13.0…v4.14.0

As always, we welcome any bug reports at https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/issues

I recently got worried about CartoCSS project, which we use as a Mapnik configuration parser in OSM Carto. There’s only one person available for a long time and I feel this is dangerous, because he has officially stepped down recently and if he looses any interest in it, there would be not even basic support, like merging code or making the release.

If there’s somebody ready to look at the code (JavaScript) and join the project even to just keep it alive in standby mode, I would be very glad. Here is nebulon42 story and what he expects to “share the keys” (or even pass the baton) in the project:

https://github.com/mapbox/carto/issues/495#issuecomment-412987738

Dear all,

Today, v4.13.0 of the OpenStreetMap Carto stylesheet (the default stylesheet on the OSM website) has been released. Once changes are deployed on the openstreetmap.org it will take couple of days before all tiles show the new rendering.

Changes include:

• Increased shield distances on roads
• Added icon for shop=ticket
• Added icon for shop=houseware
• Added icon for shop=charity
• Added icon for shop=second_hand
• Added icon for shop=interior_decoration
• Added icon for amenity=bureau_de_change
• Added icon for amenity=casino
• Added icon for amenity=boat_rental
• Updated shop=department_store icon
• Small documentation and code fixes

Thanks to all the contributors for this release.

For a full list of commits, see https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/compare/v4.12.0…v4.13.0

As always, we welcome any bug reports at https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/issues

Dear all,

Today, v4.12.0 of the OpenStreetMap Carto stylesheet (the default stylesheet on the OSM website) has been released. Once changes are deployed on the openstreetmap.org it will take couple of days before all tiles show the new rendering.

Changes include:

Major changes

• Dropped subpixel accuracy for areas, which includes tuning some database indexes. When deployed, it might speed up reading data.

Changes

• Added rendering “surface” tag on roads with a pattern
• More vertical objects rendering and tuning (man_made=tower types, man_made=chimney, man_made=communications_tower)
• tourism=information types rendering and tuning (information=audioguide, board, guidepost, map, office, tactile_map, tactile_model and terminal)
• Added rendering for place=quarter
• Added rendering of historic=city_gate
• Added rendering of lock_name
• Ditch and drain name labels are rendered with some offset
• Pixel aligned ford icon
• Made amenity=shelter icon brown
• Finer man_made=pier width rendering
• Rendering living street tunnels different from residential
• Added rendering of overground power=cable like power=line
• Small documentation and code fixes

Thanks to all the contributors for this release including Adamant36 and M1dgard, new contributors. I also like to thank nebulon42 who left our team due to a change of his priorities for all the work on this style and the tools we’re using!

For a full list of commits, see https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/compare/v4.11.0…v4.12.0

As always, we welcome any bug reports at https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/issues

Dear all,

Today, v4.11.0 of the OpenStreetMap Carto stylesheet (the default stylesheet on the OSM website) has been released. Once changes are deployed on the openstreetmap.org it will take couple of days before all tiles show the new rendering.

Changes include

• Fixed office/amenity conflict
• Brightened built-up areas on z12
• Refurbished natural=spring icon
• Added rendering for amenity=police and amenity=fire_station areas
• Added rendering of amenity=nursing_home
• Added rendering of amenity=childcare
• Added rendering of amenity=driving_school
• Added area rendering for amenity=bus_station
• Added area rendering of amenity=taxi
• Made highway=traffic_signals icon less obtrusive
• Moved barriers to higher zoom level
• Hiding railway=platform with location=underground, tunnels and covered=yes
• Small documentation and code fixes

Thanks to all the contributors for this release.

For a full list of commits, see https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/compare/v4.10.0…v4.11.0

As always, we welcome any bug reports at https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/issues

Dear all,

Today, v4.10.0 of the OpenStreetMap Carto stylesheet (the default stylesheet on the OSM website) has been released. Once changes are deployed on the openstreetmap.org it will take couple of days before all tiles show the new rendering.

Changes include

• Adding rendering for historic=castle and historic=manor
• Adding rendering office=* as dots + names
• Adding rendering for waterway=waterfall
• Adding place=square name rendering for nodes
• Adding rendering for big natural=bay
• Adding rendering for leisure=beach_resort
• Adding rendering for amenity=parking_space
• Adding rendering of aerialway=zip_line
• Adding rendering for shop=bed
• Adding rendering for shop=video_games
• Adding halo to roads on z6 and z7
• Extending intermittent waterbody rendering to landuse=basin
• Moving highway=mini_roundabout rendering to higher zoom level
• Dropping waterway=derelict_canal rendering
• Small documentation and code fixes

Thanks to all the contributors for this release, including d3d9, doktorpixel14 and hikemaniac, new contributors.

For a full list of commits, see https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/compare/v4.9.0…v4.10.0

As always, we welcome any bug reports at https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/issues

Dear all,

Today, v4.9.0 of the openstreetmap-carto stylesheet (the default stylesheet on the OSM website) has been released. Once changes are deployed on the openstreetmap.org it will take couple of days before all tiles show the new rendering.

Changes include

Major changes

• A bug where closed ways with natural=cliff or natural=tree_row were not rendering has been fixed. This required fixing a transform bug. The fix will apply to all objects when they are created in OSM, but there is no migration for existing databases. Deployments will have to decide if the effects are serious enough to require them to reload the database.

Changes

• Adding place=square name rendering
• Adding rendering for different types of towers and masts
• Making gardens to use grass color with plant nursery pattern
• Adding rendering for intermittent water bodies
• Give oceans outline and simplify shapefiles on z0-7
• Simplify (generalize) admin borders
• Move natural=grassland and landuse=meadow earlier
• Start rendering aerialway name
• Adding icons for amenity=bbq, amenity=shower, leisure=sauna and advertising=column
• Adding special icons for shop=dairy, shop=medical_supply and shop=music
• Move amenity=toilets to higher zoom levels
• Fixing some SVG icons artifacts
• Make military=danger_area font dark pink and slanted
• Changing rendering for construction=steps to distinguish it from roads
• Changing label colour of private parking
• Small documentation and code fixes

Thanks to all the contributors for this release, including james2432, Penegal and jragusa, new contributors.

For a full list of commits, see https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/compare/v4.8.0…v4.9.0

As always, we welcome any bug reports at https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/issues

Dear all,

Today, v4.8.0 of the openstreetmap-carto stylesheet (the default stylesheet on the OSM website) has been released. Once changes are deployed on the openstreetmap.org it will take couple of days before all tiles show the new rendering.

Changes include

• Made military area rendering less prominent
• Adding rendering for historic=wayside_shrine
• Adding rendering for historic=fort
• Adding rendering for amenity=public_bath
• Adding rendering for shop=chocolate
• Adding rendering for barrier=toll_booth (nodes)
• Adding rendering barrier=log
• Adding rendering for amenity=waste_disposal
• Moving tourism-boundary under barrier layer
• Docker: run osm2pgsql in slim mode
• Fix operator precedence for hstore queries
• Small documentation fixes

Thanks to all the contributors for this release, including jbelien, MKuranowski, andrzej-r and Zverik, new contributors.

For a full list of commits, see https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/compare/v4.7.0…v4.8.0

As always, we welcome any bug reports at https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/issues

Dear all,

Today, v4.7.1 of the openstreetmap-carto stylesheet (the defaultstylesheet on the OSM website) has been released. Once changes are deployed on the openstreetmap.org it will take couple of days before all tiles show the new rendering.

This is a bugfix release, the only change is a code fixing this rendering problem: https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/issues/3043

Thanks to all the contributors for this release.

For a full list of commits, see https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/compare/v4.7.0…v4.7.1

As always, we welcome any bug reports at https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/issues

Dear all,

Today, v4.7.0 of the openstreetmap-carto stylesheet (the default stylesheet on the OSM website) has been released. Once changes are deployed on the openstreetmap.org it will take couple of days before all tiles show the new rendering.

Changes include

• Adding icon for tourism=apartment
• Adding icon for leisure=firepit
• Yellow background for amenity=arts_centre
• Start rendering natural=heath earlier
• Start rendering entrances
• Changing tourism=picnic_site icon colour to green
• Move emergency=phone to higher zoom level
• Rendering seasonal waterways as intermittent
• Update Noto fonts to Phase III
• Fine-tuning of bridge labels
• Documentation changes and updates

Thanks to all the contributors for this release.

For a full list of commits, see https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/compare/v4.6.0…v4.7.0

As always, we welcome any bug reports at https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/issues

I’d like to change the rendering of protected areas on osm-carto (the style which is used as a default map layer on the main OSM.org website). That proved to be a complex problem, however thanks to the comments from the community on the issue tracker and Talk list I see the general plan what to do. This entry is just a slightly edited message I sent to the list.

_Exhibit A: [Adirondack Park](relation/1695394#map=8/43.975/-74.309) disaster..._

TL;DR summary: I think that for now we should render all the existing tags, but make some of them appear earlier to encourage smooth migration to a more precise scheme.

General findings

… See full entry

Dear all,

Today, v4.5.0 of the openstreetmap-carto stylesheet (the default stylesheet on openstreetmap.org) has been released.

Changes include:

Major changes

• Cleaning up low zoom levels (z5-z7):
  • Rendering roads from z6 instead of z5
  • Rendering national parks from z8 instead of z7
  • Rendering railways from z8 instead of z7
• Changing parking color from yellow to gray

Changes

• Unified rendering of leisure=fitness_station and leisure=fitness_centre
• Rendering of military=bunker
• Rendering all station buildings as major buildings
• Text wrapping for station labels
• Changing windmill color from amenity brown to man_made gray
• Some other documentation and code changes

Thanks to all the contributors for this release.

For a full list of commits, see https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/compare/v4.4.0…v4.5.0

As always, we welcome any bug reports at https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/issues