What are the options for generating images from OSM data without importing it to PostgreSQL

Question

While I'm waiting for my first try of an osm2pgsql import to succeed I am wondering if what I'm doing is really necessary.

The goal is to periodically produce some .png maps from a slightly filtered version of the OSM data provided by Geofabrik. After filtering the full planet file is around 20G.

I don't need these maps to be generated in real-time and wouldn't mind if the maps take 30 minutes or 1 hour to generate.

• Is it reasonable to try to generate these maps directly from the osm.pbf file?

• I was thinking of using openstreetmap-carto with some small changes to style the maps. Is there any similar project that doesn't require PostgreSQL? Would I need to fork the project and change it to support file data?

Answer 1

You're not doing anything wrong here. PostgreSQL will give you great flexibility in using the data.

However, as to the styling aspect, and considering your requirements of infrequent but customized updates, I really think you should look at QGIS (https://www.qgis.org/en/site/).

As a GIS (Geographical Information System), it is a great platform for custom cartographic styling your OpenStreetMap data as stored in PostgreSQL / PostGIS, which it can access with ease, and doesn't come with all the burden of needing to setup webservers/services and maintain them. You will just access your imported PostgreSQL data through ODBC.