GMaps Image Fetcher

Simple tool to download and stitch together image tiles from Google Maps via the Static-Maps API

How it works

• Give the tool two sets of latitudes and longitudes for the north-west and south-east of the area you wish to download the imagery from
• The tool calculates how many individual image tiles it needs to get from Google's Static-Maps API and begins to download them
• All image tiles are stitched together and a preview showed onscreen
• The image is saved to a file in your chosen format (PNG, JPG, or BMP)

Installation

Prerequisites

• A GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY is required as per the T&Cs of Google's Static-Maps API (plenty of tutorials online showing you how to generate this, Google it)
• Please ensure to enable the Static Maps API also in your account

Install from PyPI

pip install gmaps-image-fetcher

Install from GitHub

pip install git+https://github.com/joseph-holland/gmaps-image-fetcher.git

Running

1. Set your GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY environment variable

   Windows

   set GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY=AIzaS.............
   

   Linux/macOS

   export GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY=AIzaS.............
   

2. Run the tool and give it the NW lat/lon and SE lat/lon as well as a zoom level (1= world, 20=buildings)

   gmaps-image-fetcher -nw 53.369745 -6.348743 -se 53.348326 -6.296656 -z 16
   

3. The tool will calculate how many image tiles it will need to retrieve and prompt if you wish to continue

   Retrieve 15 image tiles from Google static-maps API
   Do you want to continue y/n: y
   

4. It will then download the image tiles, stitch them together, show the image onscreen and save to the local directory

   

Command-line Options

Examples

Save a high-resolution image with scale factor 2:

gmaps-image-fetcher -nw 53.369745 -6.348743 -se 53.348326 -6.296656 -z 16 -sc 2

Save as JPEG format for smaller file size:

gmaps-image-fetcher -nw 53.369745 -6.348743 -se 53.348326 -6.296656 -z 16 -f jpg

Increase delay between API calls to avoid rate limits:

gmaps-image-fetcher -nw 53.369745 -6.348743 -se 53.348326 -6.296656 -z 16 --delay 1.0

License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 - see the LICENSE file for details.