Oh no it happened again, this monday-connect challenge post has slipped to almost Wednesday. But even if not many people want to try, I am committed to churning them out.
I came across Map to Poster a little web site that is fun, one of the kind of pre-AI “generator” type web sites I still enjoy. Enter the name of a city and a country and it generates a stylish map as a poster (choose from a few styles). It can take a few minutes to generate.
Because our OEGlobal 2026 conference planning is on our plates, and MIT is on our minds, I put in Cambridge, USA, to produce this poster.
Be patient as it takes a few minutes for the maps to generate. If you want more control, you can download the source code, and run for command line (you can customize many more properties). Map to Poster was created by Ankur Gupta, a software developer from Bengaluru, India. It is released under an MIT license (see how appropriate that is!).
Give Map to Poster a try for the place in the world you live (or want to live) and share what you create!
This was found via the DS106 Daily Create which has published small creative challenges every day for 14+ years.
The only range that worked was 5km. At first I wondered if it was because Delta is a weird shape, or that it’s a smaller city compared to the more well known/documented Vancouver… but it also struggled to produce Vancouver at different ranges.
Either way, it’s a very cool concept and the result is pretty nice (although not 100% accurate)
Thanks for trying @Downes and @agrey ! I did read that the web version was very slow, I think I got a 15km one for Moose Jaw. Maybe.
Still Amanda, of not accurate, that is a stylish poster for Delta. Is that where there are some places to go bird watching? Michelle Lamberson from UBC took me out there once or twice to take photos of eagles and big birds.
For the Daily Create, I did one from the closest place to my rural home that has a name- Archydal does not even exist anymore, but at one time it had a rail stop, a school, and a hospital. The roads are typical Saskatchewan regular rural grid.
Oh! I see why it’s inaccurate… this is only half of Delta: South Delta (Ladner). Yes, where there’s a lot of bird watching and eagles. Delta also stretches Northwest from here (known as North Delta), which is where I live and why I was so confused.
New Westminster worked great, but it helps that a) it’s a tiny city; and b) I abbreviated to “New West” since doing with “New Westminster” cut off the start and end" of the label
