Render admin borders earlier/more prominent

[matthijsmelissen]

There are some requests for admin borders to be rendered earlier:

• Render admin_level=2 more prominent on z5 and z6 (https://trac.openstreetmap.org/ticket/2693)
• Render admin_level=5 at z10 (https://trac.openstreetmap.org/ticket/4738)
• Render admin_level=6 at z9 and z10 (https://trac.openstreetmap.org/ticket/3300)

Let me know what you think.

[23cpo]

I think it's good how it is handled already with the zoomlevels

[katpatuka]

• One could possibly use a different color for admin_level=2 (black ?).

• One could possibly use a sort of mathematical formula for admin_level > 2 rendering:

  zoomlevel = admin_level + 4
  That would mean: let admin_level=6 start to show up at zoomlevel 10.
  That way one has an easy way of obeying admin_level hierarchies.

[apmon]

As the originator of trac ticket 2693, I still think that admin_level=2 should be more prominent on z5 and z6. E.g. if you look at west / central Europe, imho it is very hard / impossible to see where the country boundaries are in the dense rendering of motorways and other features.

After admin_level=4, imho admin boundaries become irrelevant for most (visual) purposes, and so for those I would suggest to not increase the prominance too much.

[Rovastar]

Countries definitely should be more prominent. I'll have tip to look at the others in more detail. Different admin levels mean different things in different countries so this needs more thought.

[vincentdephily]

For what it's worth, I think http://layers.openstreetmap.fr/ sets a good example at low and high zooms.

My biggest gripe with it is at high zooms, with multiple overlapping boudaries : it's hard to know which label is for which boundary.

We also see the effect of rendering the boundary below highways, since the later are considered more important. It's better, but still no wholy satisfying : http://layers.openstreetmap.fr/?zoom=16&lat=52.66326&lon=-6.76756&layers=B0000FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

[matkoniecz]

and reverse - https://trac.openstreetmap.org/ticket/3973 "Administrative borders are too bold" with http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=13/50.1653/14.3590 as example

[Tomasz-W]

What do you think about change borders colour to grey/ black? OSM is the only one map I know with violet borders. It looks a little bit crappy. Almost every other styles and maps (eg. Mapbox styles, Here styles, Omniscale, Mapsurfer, or Google Maps) have grey/ black borders system. It works and looks good.

[kocio-pl]

Initial rendering looks very promising for me - for example HEX 555555:

Poland, z6
Before

After

Warsaw, z12
Before

After

[HolgerJeromin]

Almost every other styles and maps (eg. ...) have grey/ black borders system. It works and looks good.

Other Styles do not show so many information. Thats why changing the road color was so difficult.

[katpatuka]

violet as boundary colour is fine for me - no need to look similar to Mapbox styles, Here styles, Omniscale, Mapsurfer, or Google Maps ;)

[kozuch]

I also support changing the color of borders to some more neutral one - probably grey or black. Does the current violet color have any reasoning behind it or is it just a historical heritage? Any other color besides a neutral grey/black does not really make sense to me today.

[matkoniecz]

Purple for borders is relatively popular for maps.

[kozuch]

@matkoniecz Can you show evidence?

I like the way borders are rendered at Mapy.cz - thre is a wider grey line with a kind of "dashed" black line inside of it - example here: https://mapy.cz/s/1S03P

[kocio-pl]

Interesting idea, thanks!

[dieterdreist]

I also support violet borders, it makes them easily distinguishable from other features, and is a quite common color for borders.

[kocio-pl]

@matkoniecz @dieterdreist: Could you give some examples of violet borders on maps?

[katpatuka]

well - isn't this violett: https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=11/26.3470/88.9803 ? Maybe it's purple... ;)

[dieterdreist]

sent from a phone

On 14. Oct 2017, at 03:08, kocio-pl ***@***.***> wrote: @matkoniecz @dieterdreist: Could you give some examples of violet borders on maps?

I can, but it doesn’t mean anything for osm carto. e.g. http://mapy.net.pl/userdata/gfx/267a8399022c37fba57b0eb8cc117723.jpg

[jeisenbe]

Does this issue also include rendering the text labels along borders sooner, or should I open a new issue for this idea?

The French style renders admin_level < 4 text labels along the borders at z11 and higher, and admin_level <6 at z13 and higher, while admin level >= 7 is at z15 (instead of z16 as in this style). I don't think all of these levels would work for countries like Indonesia (where admin_level 7 and up are very small in urban areas), but certainly admin_level=2 and 4 country border labels could be displayed sooner, as could admin_level 4. Probably even admin_level 5 and 6 could be a little sooner than at present.

[mirabilos]

Yes, please do render them more prominent… but not in grey!

I used to use the https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OpenMapSurfer overlay, but with that gone I’m totally lost.