I have two unrelated, but similar projects at the moment that I would like to create maps for:
- Create a map to be inserted into an autobiography as an illustration showing the locations mentioned in the narrative.
- Create a map for a museum display showing the locations of aircraft crash sites in a local area.
As far as requirements and conditions, there are only a few:
- The coordinates are either already known and listed or can be, so consider the issue of acquiring the data solved.
- The goal is to create a static, offline map, so a website embeddable or online version of OSM is not necessary. Instead, the intent would be to generate a map that could be either screenshotted or, ideally, directly exported to an image file to be either printed by myself or sent to a publisher.
- In at least one of the cases, there are a sufficiently large enough number of points that simply putting the name of the label next to the point results in overlapping text that is an illegible mess. Therefore, the idea is instead to number each point and then add a list off to the side that associates each number with the name of the location. While it is within my capability to edit a map with GIMP to add numbers to unlabeled points, it would be beneficial if whatever solution is suggested could generate them as part of a built in process. Double points if it could create the list as well.
- While I do generally consider myself a power user and know lightweight markup language and basic HTML, I am not familiar with Python or any other type of coding. So, unfortunately, any programming heavy solutions would be difficult for me to implement.
For reference, in the case of the autobiography, up to this point, I have been inputting the coordinates into a Wikipedia location map template and then screenshotting that. (see below) However, that has proved to be less than ideal. I also tried uMap, but that seemed geared more towards the online use cases. However, it is also possible that I was just not familiar enough with it.
Trying to find an answer to this question has been frustrating. A general internet search for “map creator” turns up a bunch of results for creating fictional, particularly high fantasy, maps for roles such as a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. On the other hand, most queries from other users on the OpenStreetMap forums regarding this subject involve how to create an interactive online map, not an offline paper one.
Lastly, I hope this format and wording (e.g. “requirements”) or the commercial sounding goal of the first project (publishing a book) doesn’t come across as demanding. As a Wikipedia contributor myself, I can appreciate that OSM is an open source project that individuals provide out of a sense of service to a higher ideals and is not a for profit venture that of which you can make requests. I would greatly appreciate any help or suggestions that anyone could provide.
