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(Request for cross check by the OSM community)
(Aiming to compile a complete set of OSM POI icons)
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During the planning of a new Android software I discovered that on the various maps as well as in various OSM editors like JOSM, Vespucci etc. the number of map features supported by presets including the available icons is limited.
 
During the planning of a new Android software I discovered that on the various maps as well as in various OSM editors like JOSM, Vespucci etc. the number of map features supported by presets including the available icons is limited.
  
As a side effect I also discovered, that the selection of presets in editors like JOSM seems to have a serious influence on the number of occurrences of a certain map feature in the planet file.
+
As a side effect I also discovered, that the selection of pre-sets in editors like JOSM seems to have a serious influence on the number of occurrences of a certain map feature in the planet file.
 
But this is another topic to do some more research...
 
But this is another topic to do some more research...
  
I then did some research regarding the availability of icons for OSM map features and found, that currently no collection of icons with a homogenous style exists that covers at least all map features which are present in the OSM planet file at minimum 1,000 times.
+
I then did some research regarding the availability of icons for OSM map features and found, that currently no collection of icons with a homogeneous style exists that covers at least all map features which are present in the OSM planet file at minimum 1,000 times.
  
 
While researching the currently available icon sets I found, that the icons originally designed by [http://www.sjjb.co.uk/mapicons/ SJJB] would be the best starting point for creating a complete set of icons.
 
While researching the currently available icon sets I found, that the icons originally designed by [http://www.sjjb.co.uk/mapicons/ SJJB] would be the best starting point for creating a complete set of icons.
  
I then researched with the help of the wonderful [http://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/ TAGINFO service] which icons with at least 1,000 occurrences in the OSM planet file were missing in the SJBB collection and finally added to the originally 300 SJBB SVG icons more than 700 newly designed SVG icons, sometimes based on existing ideas, sometimes with completely new motives.<br>
+
I then researched with the help of the wonderful [http://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/ TAGINFO service] which icons with at least 1,000 occurrences in the OSM planet file were missing in the SJJB collection and finally added to the originally 300 SJJB SVG icons more than 700 newly designed or optimized SVG icons, sometimes based on existing ideas, sometimes with completely new motives.<br>
 
To each icon I assigned a randomly selected unique 5-digit icon number which can be found on the left side of the icon file name.
 
To each icon I assigned a randomly selected unique 5-digit icon number which can be found on the left side of the icon file name.
  

Revision as of 16:19, 12 March 2014

OSM-icons banner.png

Aiming to compile a complete set of OSM POI icons

During the planning of a new Android software I discovered that on the various maps as well as in various OSM editors like JOSM, Vespucci etc. the number of map features supported by presets including the available icons is limited.

As a side effect I also discovered, that the selection of pre-sets in editors like JOSM seems to have a serious influence on the number of occurrences of a certain map feature in the planet file. But this is another topic to do some more research...

I then did some research regarding the availability of icons for OSM map features and found, that currently no collection of icons with a homogeneous style exists that covers at least all map features which are present in the OSM planet file at minimum 1,000 times.

While researching the currently available icon sets I found, that the icons originally designed by SJJB would be the best starting point for creating a complete set of icons.

I then researched with the help of the wonderful TAGINFO service which icons with at least 1,000 occurrences in the OSM planet file were missing in the SJJB collection and finally added to the originally 300 SJJB SVG icons more than 700 newly designed or optimized SVG icons, sometimes based on existing ideas, sometimes with completely new motives.
To each icon I assigned a randomly selected unique 5-digit icon number which can be found on the left side of the icon file name.

Recommended keys and presets for each map feature

After creating a set of more than 1,000 icons in total I added to each map feature, represented by an icon, recommended key-value pairs and presets for some values. These key-value pairs were stored in the file name of the icon for easy handling.
The information regarding the key-value pairs was mainly retrieved from OSM wiki information, JOSM presets, taginfo findings and some other OSM related sources.

While compiling the relevant keys and values for each icon I found, that some information is needed repeatedly for multiple icons. In this case I created txt files that can be found in the zip file containing commonly used key-value pairs. These txt files were then referenced in the icon file names suitable for usage of these common key-value pairs.

Feature groups

It might be pretty time consuming to find the correct icon out of > 1,000 icons while mapping a certain map feature.
Therefore I introduced so called "feature groups". Feature groups are collections of icons / map features with a similar topic.

Example: woman’s fav places
This feature group combines all icons / map features that might represent a POI which is particularly interesting for women: a shop with handbags, a baby hatch, a cafe etc.

I created a set of feature groups and assigned icons to them. The feature groups assigned to each icon are mentioned in the file name.

Request for cross check by the OSM community

Some days ago I completed the task of compiling key-value pairs and feature groups for each map feature after some initial feedback from the Italian OSM community, so it is now the right time to ask interested OSM community members to cross check the work done for an optimal icon set / tag assignment as follows:

  1. check if important icons are missing
  2. check if some icons should have different graphics
  3. check if the selected key-value pairs are optimal
  4. check if the feature group assignment is optimal
  5. other comments

In case you have suggestions for improving the icons, assigned key-value pairs, presets of values or feature groups, please send an email to Markus.
Please don´t forget to mention the icon number which is the only unique reference available for each icon.

The zip file with all 1,000 icons as well as the txt file with the commonly used key-value pairs can be found here.
Please explode the zip file in the root directory of your hard drive. Otherwise it might fail because of the length of some of the file names.