MBTiles (SQLite Tiles)

MBTiles is a Mapbox specification describing how to pack map tiles into a single SQLite file: a tiles table with zoom level, coordinates and the image, plus a metadata table with the name, bounds and zoom range. Instead of thousands of small files on disk you get one portable container understood by QGIS, TileServer GL, MapLibre and mobile apps.

The format is chosen when the map has to work without internet or be served from your own server: an offline layer in a mobile app, a backdrop on a field tablet, a local tile service for an internal portal. Copying and handing over one file is easier than a folder with tens of thousands of images.

The OSM2CDR export delivers raster MBTiles: the selected area is rendered on the server in your style and cut into 256x256 PNG tiles. By default zooms 10 through 16 are built, and the range is set at export time; rows are numbered in TMS order, as the specification requires, and the name, area bounds and zoom bounds are written into metadata. Inside are images, not vector tiles — the style is chosen at export and cannot be changed on the client.