Fun fact: QGIS was originally written just to view PostGIS tables.

That is a fun fact!

GRASS v.generalize() has a lot of different methods: https://grass.osgeo.org/grass85/manuals/v.generalize.html. I can't personally speak to the differences but probably worth looking into.

The QGIS Simplify tool also has a Visvalingam method: https://docs.qgis.org/3.40/en/docs/user_manual/processing_al...

It may be interesting to combine a workflow with the QGIS Smooth tool: https://docs.qgis.org/3.40/en/docs/user_manual/processing_al...

I don't see mention of OHM anywhere within TimeMap, is there something I'm missing? Is there a page about where the historical data comes from for the map?

You may be interested in OpenHistoricalMap: https://www.openhistoricalmap.org, which anyone can contribute to (you can read much more about it here: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OpenHistoricalMap). Edit: I didn't realize at first but from other comments it sounds like TimeMap actually pulls data directly from OHM.

This was an incredible aspect of the app to have when in Rome this summer! So many public water sources, and it was so, so hot....

The app 'fountains in italy' is pretty cool and has saved me on a couple of trips there. Especially locating a fountain on a bridge(!) at Lake Garda...i was stood almost next to it, it was hidden by the people walking past.

Well, when I registered an LLC in the US, Google mailed me a postcard to confirm my address, and third-party providers begin calling to help "claim my Google listing". So they've really created an ecosystem that you immediately become part of rather than something you have to seek out. Edit: I also completely agree that this is what drives the monopoly.

Sounds like there is hope: if Google can find you, so can the Overture Foundation.

The tile size doesn't change, but the number of pixels per meter does as you note--distortion being greater the farther you get from the equator (in the Mercator projection).

The protomaps blog has some heady stuff you may enjoy reading: https://protomaps.com/blog/free-tier-maps. Felt apparently uses protomaps.js, which you can learn more about in that blog as well.

Well tile size in meters changes. Pixels stay the same but when a tile is rendered at a specific zoom level of meters/pixel on the screen it needs to be scaled differently and you may even need to request another ring of tiles to fill up the same FoV. Perhaps that was just a specific quirk of my application since I needed to overlay a metric grid with other data.

Thanks for the link, that was an interesting read. Though it seems odd to me that they insist on using AWS and complain about bandwidth when there are providers like Scaleway that do not charge for bandwidth usage at all. Though on the other hand they do only have EU locations so you can't use the CDN principle to reduce latency. But I'm sure people would wait a second longer if it meant a free API.

Can people add their own layers, like a WMS overlay? and, relatedly, have you considered adding georeferenced historical map layers? It seems like a good platform for story-telling.

Very cool you are using protomaps.js! I recently found their blog and really like the ideas in there: https://protomaps.com/blog

The Stamen toner map may work well for you: http://maps.stamen.com/#toner/14/37.8024/-122.2645 Also checkout their watercolor rendering... probably my favorite basemap that I never get to use.

If you do use QGIS, you can get the Quick Map Services plugin that will connect you with these Stamen basemaps as well (and tons of other basemaps, a must-have plugin).

Stamen toner map is not that great for printing as it's still a raster.

Sure, I just mentioned it in the off-chance it was good enough out of the box. Big jump from making a screenshot (or perhaps stitching a few together) to editing OSM vectors in QGIS/Inkscape, which others have mentioned already.