The new Mapbox Vector Tile Specification guide

Sam Matthews
Tue, 26 Apr 2016 10:00:00 -0400

Vector tiles are how we store geographic data for rendering on the web or mobile devices. Every time you upload your data to Mapbox it is converted into a tileset; a collection of vector tiles.

For us to confidently render your geographic data with tools such as Mapbox GL JS, vector tiles must encode geographic information consistently. We created the Mapbox Vector Tile Specification specifically for this. The specification recently graduated to version 2, and we have been incorporating these changes into our tools.

To bring clarity to the specification, we put together a highly visual, interactive page that dives into versions, how geometry and attributes are encoded, and what the specification doesn’t cover.

Head over to the new Vector Tile Specification guide to take a look!

Questions about the specification? Ideas on how to improve the guide? Reach out on GitHub or Twitter.