gdal2mbtiles 1.3.1

Converts a GDAL-readable dataset into an MBTiles file. This is used to generate web maps.

gdal2mbtiles helps you generate web mapping tiles that can be shown through a browser-based mapping library on your website.

GDAL-readable files are images that are georeference, that means that they are positioned and projected on to the world. In order to display a dynamic map on the web, you don’t want to serve the whole image at once, so it must be sliced into tiles that are hosted by a tile server.

The MBTiles file format was developed by MapBox to make tile storage easier. You can upload the final file to their service, or run your own tile server. MapBox provides one called TileStream.

Installation

Using pip:

$ pip install gdal2mbtiles

PyPi package page https://pypi.python.org/pypi/gdal2mbtiles/

From source:

$ git clone https://github.com/ecometrica/gdal2mbtiles.git
$ cd gdal2mbtiles
$ python setup.py install

Note that this program requires Python 2.7 or higher.

External Dependencies

We rely on GDAL to read georeferenced datasets. However, it is not available on PyPi.

Under Debian or Ubuntu, run the following to install it:

$ sudo apt-get install python-gdal

We also rely on VIPS to do fast image processing. It’s also not available on PyPi.

Under Debian or Ubuntu, run the following to install it:

$ sudo apt-get install python-vipscc

If you are using a virtualenv, you will need to symlink Python library in the right place. Under Debian or Ubuntu, assuming Python 2.7, run the following:

$ ln -s /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/vipsCC $VIRTUAL_ENV/lib/python2.7/site-packages/

You’ll also need a few other libraries to deal with large TIFF files and to optimize the resulting PNG tiles.

Under Debian or Ubuntu, run the following to install them:

$ sudo apt-get install libtiff5 optipng pngquant

Command Line Interface

$ gdal2mbtiles --help
usage: gdal2mbtiles [-h] [-v] [--name NAME] [--description DESCRIPTION]
                    [--layer-type {baselayer,overlay}] [--version VERSION]
                    [--format {jpg,png}]
                    [--spatial-reference SPATIAL_REFERENCE]
                    [--resampling {near,bilinear,cubic,cubicspline,lanczos}]
                    [--min-resolution MIN_RESOLUTION]
                    [--max-resolution MAX_RESOLUTION] [--fill-borders]
                    [--no-fill-borders] [--zoom-offset N]
                    [--coloring {gradient,palette,exact}]
                    [--color BAND-VALUE:HTML-COLOR]
                    [--colorize-band COLORIZE-BAND]
                    [INPUT] [OUTPUT]

Converts a GDAL-readable into an MBTiles file

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -v, --verbose         explain what is being done

Positional arguments:
  INPUT                 GDAL-readable file.
  OUTPUT                Output filename. Defaults to INPUT.mbtiles

MBTiles metadata arguments:
  --name NAME           Human-readable name of the tileset. Defaults to INPUT
  --description DESCRIPTION
                        Description of the layer. Defaults to ""
  --layer-type {baselayer,overlay}
                        Type of layer. Defaults to "overlay"
  --version VERSION     Version of the tileset. Defaults to "1.0.0"
  --format {jpg,png}    Tile image format. Defaults to "png"

GDAL warp arguments:
  --spatial-reference SPATIAL_REFERENCE
                        Destination EPSG spatial reference. Defaults to 3857
  --resampling {near,bilinear,cubic,cubicspline,lanczos}
                        Resampling algorithm for warping. Defaults to "near"
                        (nearest-neighbour)

Rendering arguments:
  --min-resolution MIN_RESOLUTION
                        Minimum resolution to render and slice. Defaults to
                        None (do not downsample)
  --max-resolution MAX_RESOLUTION
                        Maximum resolution to render and slice. Defaults to
                        None (do not upsample)
  --fill-borders        Fill image to whole world with empty tiles. Default.
  --no-fill-borders     Do not add borders to fill image.
  --zoom-offset N       Offset zoom level by N to fit unprojected images to
                        square maps. Defaults to 0.

Coloring arguments:
  --coloring {gradient,palette,exact}
                        Coloring algorithm.
  --color BAND-VALUE:HTML-COLOR
                        Examples: --color="0:#ff00ff" --color=255:red
  --colorize-band COLORIZE-BAND
                        Raster band to colorize. Defaults to 1

Reporting bugs and submitting patches

Please check our issue tracker for known bugs and feature requests.

We accept pull requests for fixes and new features.

Credits

Maxime Dupuis and Simon Law wrote this program, with the generous support of Ecometrica.