Articles about map export formats, tools and OpenStreetMap data use cases.
Decision tree for choosing an OSM map format for design and typography print: PDF, SVG, AI, EPS, CDR, PNG, TIFF. Step by step — print size, designer software, CMYK or RGB, bleed, crop marks.
Decision tree for choosing an OSM map format for any CAD import: AutoCAD, nanoCAD, KOMPAS-3D, ArchiCAD, Revit, FreeCAD. Step by step — which CAD software, 2D or 3D, attributes, projection.
Shapefile vs GeoPackage comparison: limitations, performance, compatibility. Which GIS format to choose in 2026.
Zarr is a chunked format for N-dimensional arrays: cloud-native HDF5/NetCDF alternative used by Pangeo, CMIP6, NASA ESA with Python/JS/Rust bindings and stable v3 spec (2024).
WKT is the OGC Simple Features + ISO 19125 text representation of geometries: POINT/LINESTRING/POLYGON; backbone of PostGIS/MySQL/Oracle Spatial, WKT 2 for CRS (ISO 19162).
X3D as VRML successor: ISO/IEC 19775, XML/JSON/Classic encodings, X3DOM web viewer, CityGML mapping, OSM export.
WebP since 2010: Google's open raster format built on VP8. Lossy 25-35% smaller than JPEG, lossless 26% smaller than PNG, with alpha and animation support.
VRML 1.0 (1994) and VRML97 (ISO 14772): ASCII scene graph, Cosmo Player, X3D and glTF successors, OSM model export.
GDAL VRT since 2003: XML description of a virtual raster over thousands of GeoTIFFs — mosaicking, on-the-fly reprojection, pixel functions for NDVI, and lazy evaluation with zero copying.
USD is a Pixar format (2012, OSS 2016) for VFX pipelines: layer composition, supports Apple ARKit (USDZ), NVIDIA Omniverse, ILM, Weta; AOUSD governance since 2023.
TopoJSON is Mike Bostock's topological extension of GeoJSON (D3.js, 2012): arcs stored once, 80% size reduction; standard for choropleth and electoral maps in D3.
TomTom OV2 POI overlay for GO/Start/Via: binary with type codes 1/2/3, micro-degree coordinates, BMP icons. Speed cameras and custom POI from OSM.