osm.el - OpenStreetMap viewer for Emacs

The map data is © OpenStreetMap contributors, licensed under the ODbL The map rendering is © OpenTopoMap, licensed under the CC-BY-SA.

Osm.el is a tile-based map viewer, with a responsive movable and zoomable display. The map can be controlled with the keyboard or with the mouse. The viewer fetches the map tiles in parallel from tile servers via the curl program. The package comes with a list of multiple preconfigured tile servers. You can bookmark your favorite locations using regular Emacs bookmarks or create links from Org files to locations. Furthermore the package provides commands to search for locations by name and to open and display GPX tracks.

Features

Responsive, zoomable and movable map display
Display of tracks and POIs from GPX file
Parallel fetching of tiles with curl
Moving in large and small steps
Mouse support (dragging, clicking, menu)
Map scale indicator
Distance measurement
Go to coordinate
Search for location by name
Org link, Geo url and Elisp link support
Bookmarked positions with pins
Multiple preconfigured tile servers

Configuration

The package is available on GNU ELPA and can be installed with package-install. Note that Osm.el requires Emacs 27 and depends on the external curl program. Emacs must be built with libxml, libjansson, librsvg, libjpeg and libpng support. The following is an example configuration which relies on use-package. Please take a look at the wiki for additional configuration.

(use-package osm
  :bind ("C-c m" . osm-prefix-map) ;; Alternatives: `osm-home' or `osm'

  :custom
  ;; Take a look at the customization group `osm' for more options.
  (osm-server 'default) ;; Configure the tile server
  (osm-copyright t)     ;; Display the copyright information

  :config

  ;; Add custom servers, see also https://github.com/minad/osm/wiki
  ;; (osm-add-server 'myserver
  ;;   :name "My tile server"
  ;;   :group "Custom"
  ;;   :description "Tiles based on aerial images"
  ;;   :url "https://myserver/tiles/%z/%x/%y.png?apikey=%k")
)

Bookmarks, Org links, Geo urls and Elisp links

There exist multiple methods to store a location, such that you can return there afterwards.

b: Create a bookmark of the current location. The bookmark is stored as an Emacs bookmark in bookmark-alist. You can jump to the bookmark via the completion commands osm-bookmark-jump or bookmark-jump.
l: Store an Org link to the current location. The link can be inserted subsequently into an Org buffer with C-c C-l.
u: Save the geo url of the current location in the kill ring. The url can be inserted in another buffer via C-y. A geo url has the form geo:27.96,86.89;z=13.
C-u u: Save an Elisp link to the current location in the kill ring. An Elisp link has the form (osm 51.49 -0.14 11).

Bookmarks and Org links can be created at point by clicking with the mouse. See the docstrings of the commands osm-bookmark-set and org-link-store.

Org link examples

Click on a link or press RET to jump to the location. These links work in Org buffers in Emacs. Furthermore you can open Org links in arbitrary buffers with org-open-at-point-global. I recommend binding the command to a convenient key, e.g., C-c o. The format of the links complies with the geo URI scheme defined by RFC 5870.

[[geo:41.869560826994544,12.45849609375;z=6;s=opentopomap][Italia, 41.87° 12.46° OpenTopoMap]]
[[geo:51.48950698022105,-0.144195556640625;z=11][London, England, 51.49° -0.14°]]
[[geo:55.686875255964424,12.569732666015625;z=12;s=cyclosm][København, Danmark, 55.69° 12.57° CyclOSM]]
[[geo:27.961656050984658,86.89224243164062;z=13;s=opentopomap][Mount Everest, 27.96° 86.89° OpenTopoMap]]
<geo:Tour Eiffel, Av. Gustave Eiffel, Paris> (Address link)

Elisp link examples

Place the point behind the closing parenthesis and press C-x C-e to jump to the location. The Elisp links can be used in arbitrary text files. Since they are Elisp s-expressions they can be easily manipulated programatically.

(osm 41.869561 12.458496 6 'opentopomap "Lazio, Italia")
(osm 51.489507 -0.144196 11 "London, Greater London, England, SW1A 2DX, United Kingdom")
(osm 55.686875 12.569733 12 'cyclosm "København, Københavns Kommune, Region Hovedstaden, 1357, Danmark")
(osm 27.961656 86.892242 13 'opentopomap "Khumjung, Khumbupasanglahmu, सोलुखुम्बु, Province #1, Nepal")
(osm "Tour Eiffel, Av. Gustave Eiffel, Paris") ;; Address link

Distance measurement

Osm provides a simple distance measurement utility. In order to measure a distance, place or select a pin by clicking with the left mouse button. Then create one or more additional way points by pressing shift and clicking the left mouse button. The length of the track will be shown in the echo area. You can select the way points of the track and delete them with d or DEL.

Commands and Key Bindings

Top-level commands in osm-prefix-map. These bindings are available globally if you bind osm-prefix-map to a key like C-c m. For example, to search for a location press the key sequence C-c m s. Furthermore the key bindings are available in Osm buffers. There it is sufficient to press the key s only to initiate a search.

h: osm-home - Open new map at home coordinates
s: osm-search - Search and jump to location
t: osm-goto - Go to coordinates
v: osm-server - Select server
j: osm-jump - Jump to pin (bookmark or POI)
x: osm-gpx-show - Show GPX file in map viewer

Some additional key bindings are available in Osm buffers:

<arrow>: Small step scrolling
C-<arrow>, M-<arrow>, S-<arrow>: Large step scrolling
+, SPC: osm-zoom-in - Zoom in
-, S-SPC: osm-zoom-out - Zoom out
<mouse-1>: osm-mouse-pin - Place pin at point
<mouse-2>: org-link-store - Store point as Org link
<mouse-3>: osm-bookmark-set - Store point as bookmark
S-<mouse-1>: osm-mouse-track - Create track pin to measure distance
<down-mouse-*>: osm-mouse-drag - Drag the map with the mouse
d, DEL: osm-delete - Delete selected pin (bookmark or way point)
n: osm-rename - Rename selected pin
c: osm-center - Center to currently selected pin
X: osm-gpx-hide - Hide overlays from GPX file
l: org-store-link - Store Org link
u: osm-save-url - Save geo url in the kill ring
b: osm-bookmark-set - Set bookmark
q: quit-window - Close buffer and window
o: clone-buffer - Clone buffer

Related projects

There have been other attempts at map viewers in Emacs before.

Contributions

Since this package is part of GNU ELPA contributions require a copyright assignment to the FSF.