osm-static-maps

Openstreetmap static maps is a nodejs lib, CLI and server open source inspired on google static map service

Here you have a demo. Also a dynamic version of the demo, for testing purposes.

How to use

1. CLI

The quickest way, with no install required, is via npx:

npx osmsm --help
npx osmsm -g '{"type":"Point","coordinates":[-105.01621,39.57422]}' > map.png

# or, if chrome executable is not found
PUPPETEER_EXECUTABLE_PATH=/path/to/chrome npx osmsm -g '...' > map.png

Or install it globally to get the osmsm command:

sudo npm i -g osm-static-maps
osmsm --help
osmsm -g '{"type":"Point","coordinates":[-105.01621,39.57422]}' > map.png

• note: if you have this error trying to install globally Error: EACCES: permission denied, mkdir '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/osm-static-maps/node_modules/puppeteer/.local-chromium', it's caused by this pupeteer issue https://github.com/puppeteer/puppeteer/issues/367, you can workaround by installing globally with the unsafe-perm flag:

sudo npm i -g osm-static-maps --unsafe-perm=true

2. nodejs library

npm install osm-static-maps

// index.js old school
osmsm = require('osm-static-maps');
osmsm({geojson: geojson})
  .then(function(imageBinaryBuffer) { ... })
  .catch(function(error) { ... })

// index.js modern style (also supports typescript)
import osmsm from 'osm-static-maps'
const imageBinaryBuffer = await osmsm({geojson})

3. Standalone sample server

npx osmsm serve

Or install it globally:

sudo npm i -g osm-static-maps
osmsm serve

Or you can use docker-compose

git clone git@github.com:jperelli/osm-static-maps.git
cd osm-static-maps
docker-compose up

4. Cloud service

You can use the heroku-hosted alternative directly here

We are currently in the cloud beta, contact me directly at jperelli+osmsm@gmail.com so I can give you access to the cloud service.

API Reference

All parameters have a short and long version. The short version can be used only with the shell CLI. The long version can be used with the library and can be passed to the app server as GET query params, or POST json body (remember to set the header Content-Type: application/json)

	Parameter	Description	Default Value
g	geojson	geojson object to be rendered in the map	undefined
f	geojsonfile	filename or url to read geojson data from (use '-' to read from stdin on CLI)	undefined
H	height	height in pixels of the returned img	600
W	width	height in pixels of the returned img	800
c	center	center of the map lon,lat floats string	(center of the geojson) or '-57.9524339,-34.921779'
z	zoom	zoomlevel of the leaflet map	value of maxZoom
Z	maxZoom	max zoomlevel of the leaflet map	17
A	attribution	attribution legend	'osm-static-maps / © OpenStreetMap contributors' (or 'osm-static-maps' when vectorserverUrl is set)
t	tileserverUrl	url of a tileserver	'http://{s}.tile.openstreetmap.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png'
m	vectorserverUrl	url of a vector tile server (MVT style.json)	undefined
M	vectorserverToken	used as Authorization: Bearer <token> header on vector map requests	undefined
	vectorserverAttribution	append the vector layers source attributions (CLI: --no-vectorserverAttribution to disable)	true
D	renderToHtml	returns html of the webpage containing the map (instead of a binary image)	false
F	type	format of the image returned ('jpeg'/'png')	'png'
q	quality	quality of the image returned (0-, only for )

• Note on markerIconOptions: it's also accepted a markerIconOptions attribute in the geojson feature, for example {"type":"Point","coordinates":[-105.01621,39.57422],"markerIconOptions":{"iconUrl":"https://leafletjs.com/examples/custom-icons/leaf-red.png"}}

• Note on style: it's also accepted a pathOptions attribute in the geojson feature, for example {"type":"Polygon","coordinates":[[[-56.698,-36.413],[-56.716,-36.348],[-56.739,-36.311]]],"pathOptions":{"color":"#FF5555"}} (also remember that the # char needs to be passed as %23 if you are using GET params)

Development

git clone git@github.com:jperelli/osm-static-maps.git
cd osm-static-maps
npm install
npm run dev    # start the sample server with autoreload
npm test       # run the test suite (vitest)

Running the library/CLI/server requires Node >= 20 (see engines). The test toolchain (vitest/vite) is stricter and needs Node 20.19+, 22.12+, or 24+ — this only matters for contributors running npm test, not for consumers of the published package. The CI matrix runs the tests on Node 20, 22, 24 and 26.

Design considerations & architecture

Read the blogpost on the creation of this library and how it works internally

LICENSE

• GPL-2.0-only

Credits

Specially to the contributors of

• OpenStreetMap
• Leaflet
• Puppeteer
• ExpressJS
• Handlebars