Sunday, 1 March 2015

Static maps from CartoDB

I've used CartoDB quite a bit recently to create interactive maps. My Historic Buildings of Scotland map and my England Grade I Listed Buildings map have both proved popular. Another map that received lots of traffic was my English Greenbelt map. This one in particular was popular I think because it allowed people to find out exactly where the green belt was near them - or in fact to find out which areas aren't greenbelt. Although interactive maps are great for some things, sometimes we just want to put a static image in a report or on a website and this can often be a bit tricky with interactive content. Luckily, CartoDB allows users to export static image files (png format), and you can customise the dimensions as well. This CartoDB blog post shows you how - though you may need to disable pop-ups in your browser if it doesn't work. This tool opens up the static map in a new browser tab so if nothing happens check your pop-up blocker settings.

View the full size version

As you can see above, I've exported my English Greenbelt map. I often get asked if I have a large static image of it because if you search online there aren't really any large up to date, decent resolution, detailed green belt images. I also added some attribution information (important!) and a basic title. This is just a quick example so isn't perfect in relation to labels and so on but it gives a simple overview of the green belt.