MapC

MapC is an open-source map rendering and styling engine that creates, styles, and renders geographic maps from vector data. It offers a declarative map definition language and a rendering pipeline that can run on CPU or GPU. It supports vector tile data and common data sources for consistent cross-platform rendering.

MapC began as a collaborative GIS project and was first released in 2018. It grew from efforts to combine flexible styling with portable rendering, prioritizing open standards, extensibility, and interoperability with standard geographic formats.

Key features include a declarative styling language, support for vector tiles and raster backends, multi-threaded rendering, and GPU acceleration where available. It provides data adapters for GeoJSON, Shapefiles, MBTiles, and other formats, along with plug-ins for custom sources and rendering extensions.

Architecture centers on a core engine that coordinates a style compiler, a data layer, and a rendering backend. The data layer normalizes input sources, while the style compiler translates definitions into a rendering plan executed by CPU or GPU backends.

Applications include web maps, mobile apps, desktop GIS tools, and academic research. MapC is used when open standards, offline capability, or configurable styling without vendor lock-in are priorities.

As of the latest releases, MapC maintains an active community with regular updates and documentation. It is a niche project within the mapping ecosystem, but its modular design and transparent workflows have influenced open-source map tooling.