Parchment Maps

A maps and navigation app built on open data and open source software. OpenStreetMap is the largest open map of the world, and the apps built on it are mostly poor. Parchment is my attempt at the missing piece: an OpenStreetMap client that is good enough for daily use. Run it hosted, or run the whole stack on your own hardware.

Zoom far enough out and the map becomes a globe. All of it is OpenStreetMap data, styled rather than licensed.

Parchment depends on no single map provider. It defines a set of capabilities, such as search, routing, transit data and tiles, and any provider can fill any of them. In the end I built my own provider for the job. Then I split it into a separate product: Barrelman, a commercial geospatial API billed by usage.

Today Parchment runs on the web, iOS, Android and desktop from one codebase. It covers search, directions, transit, saved places and offline regions. I keep a devlog of how it got here and where it is going, starting with Why I’m building my own maps app.

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