City Map Poster Generator

Author: originalankur | Published: Unknown | Generated: 2026-01-17 | Domain: github.com
Tags: ‘#python’ ‘#openstreetmap’ ‘#osmnx’ ‘#map-design’ ‘#matplotlib’ ‘#generative-design’

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TLDR

MapToPoster generates stylized city posters from OpenStreetMap data through a Python command-line interface. It geocodes a city with Nominatim, downloads road and geographic features using OSMnx, then renders layered maps in matplotlib with 17 built-in themes, configurable dimensions, map radius, typography, and display labels. The project supports non-Latin city names via downloadable Google Fonts and exports 300-DPI PNG posters suitable for print, wallpapers, and social media.

Key Takeaways

• End-to-end map rendering pipeline: The CLI uses argparse for input, Nominatim for city-to-coordinate geocoding, OSMnx for map data, and matplotlib for final rendering and PNG output.
• Customizable outputs: Required --city and --country inputs can be supplemented with center-coordinate overrides, a theme, map radius, country-label override, and image dimensions up to 20 × 20 inches.
• 17 visual themes: Built-in styles include noir, blueprint, neon_cyberpunk, japanese_ink, terracotta, ocean, sunset, emerald, and more; users can add JSON theme files with colors for backgrounds, labels, water, parks, and road classes.
• Multilingual typography: Users can provide native-script city/country labels and a Google Font family. The tool detects predominantly Latin text using Unicode ranges and applies letter spacing only when more than 80% of alphabetic characters are Latin.
• Rendering hierarchy and performance: Text renders at z=11, gradients at z=10, roads at z=3, parks at z=2, water at z=1, and background at z=0. Distances above 20 km can cause slow, memory-heavy downloads; using network_type='drive' and lower DPI improves preview speed.

Images & Media

• Singapore neon cyberpunk poster — Example of the dark neon theme with electric pink and cyan road styling.
• Dubai midnight blue poster — Example of the navy-and-gold midnight_blue theme.
• San Francisco sunset poster — Example output using the warm sunset theme.
• Tokyo Japanese ink poster — Example output demonstrating the minimalist japanese_ink theme.
• Architecture overview — README diagram showing the flow from CLI parsing through Nominatim geocoding, OSMnx data fetching, matplotlib rendering, and output.

Referenced Links

• MapToPoster repository — Source code, themes, generated poster examples, and contributor guidance.
• uv — Recommended Python environment and dependency manager; uv run automatically manages the virtual environment.
• OpenStreetMap — Underlying geographic data source used to generate posters.
• OSMnx — Python library used to retrieve street networks and geographic features from OpenStreetMap.
• Google Fonts — Font source for multilingual labels; downloaded fonts are cached locally in fonts/cache/.