Becoming a cartographer

I created this interactive map using TileMill to show locations of bird-friendly coffee farms. TileMill is an application you download to your computer and use to code maps with many styles and zoom levels. The application uses a mixture of HTML, CSS and its own CartoCSS, a cartography-based CSS.

cartographer

from French, cartographie, meaning chart

This was my first time using the program, and there was a slight learning curve, but I’m excited to use it again.

TileMill has different styles than Google Maps and allows for more customization. You can add several layers of data into TileMill. The mapping software allows you to pinpoint specific locations with geocoding. You can choose icons and customize the styling of tooltips that appear if you hover over the icons.

There have been very advanced maps made using TileMill. Check some out in their gallery.