Basemaps

Choose from Felt's basemap options to create the perfect foundation for your data. Select from default or satellite styles, or switch between light and dark themes to provide contrast with your map layers. Turn labels on or off for a cleaner look, and use the sandwiching feature to control whether your data appears above or below basemap elements like roads and water.

For custom needs, connect external map services by adding basemaps from URL sources that support XYZ map tile format, including OpenStreetMap, MapTiler, Mapbox Studio, and ArcGIS. You can also choose a solid color basemap to make your data the focus of attention.

Felt basemaps

Felt provides 4 basemap options for every map:

Standard

Satellite

Light mode

Dark mode

Click the Basemap button in the top right section of the toolbar to choose from the options, control label visibility, and configure custom basemaps.

For more Felt options, hover over Add basemap to add a custom basemap or configure a solid color for your map's basemap. See Add a custom basemap and Popular custom basemaps for more information on custom basemaps.

Polygon layer & basemap ordering

After selecting your basemap, you can adjust layer positioning for polygon layers using the "Position" option in the style editor. This option controls whether your data appears above or below basemap road and water features. The default for polygon layers is "Above water and roads."

Best practices

Here are some general recommendations when choosing a basemap in Felt:

1. Working with more than 7 colors on your map? Try light or dark basemaps

1. Satellite works well if you need more details from the basemap or more real-world context.

1. Select a solid color to construct your map from a blank canvas and bring your data to the foreground

Custom basemaps

You can use your own XYZ (“Slippy map”) tiles as a Felt basemap by specifying a URL. You can also set advanced options like the minimum and maximum zoom levels (see Map constraints), so Felt knows when to stop requesting tiles and start to overzoom.

XYZ tile URLs provide a template that Felt can use to request tiles and must contain parameters for specifying the zoom level ({z}), tile row ({x}) and tile column {y}. Felt also supports tiles served in TMS format by specifying a negative tile column parameter {-y}.

Any API keys you include in the tile URL will be visible to all users. In some services, you can prevent other users from using your API keys or access tokens by limiting them to specific domains or URLs.

Add a custom basemap

1. Click the basemap button in the top right section of the toolbar

2. Hover Add basemap option

3. Select Add from URL... to connect custom XYZ map tiles

1. Paste your XYZ tile URL into the Tile URL section in the popup. See Popular custom basemaps for examples to add from services like OpenStreetMap, MapTiler, Mapbox Studio, or ArcGIS

1. Provide a title for your custom basemap

2. Under Additional Settings, you can:

   1. Customize the attribution text

   2. Adjust UI element colors for legibility

1. Click Add Basemap to apply your custom basemap to the map

Popular custom basemaps

Certain data providers provide a publicly accessible Tile Server URL for basemaps which can be used in Felt. These URLs can be added as layers (with Upload Anything's XYZ raster tile support) or as custom basemaps in Felt. Too add, copy and paste the URLs listed below.

Name

Preview

URL

Source info

OpenStreetMap

https://tile.openstreetmap.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png

Information

Google Satellite

(no labels)

https://mt1.google.com/vt/lyrs=s&x={x}&y={y}&z={z}

Information

Google Hybrid Satellite

(with labels)

https://mt1.google.com/vt/lyrs=y&x={x}&y={y}&z={z}

Information

Google Roads

https://mt1.google.com/vt/lyrs=h&x={x}&y={y}&z={z}

Information

ESRI World Imagery

https://services.arcgisonline.com/arcgis/rest/services/World_Imagery/MapServer/tile/{z}/{y}/{x}

Information

ESRI Hillshade

https://services.arcgisonline.com/arcgis/rest/services/Elevation/World_Hillshade/MapServer/tile/{z}/{y}/{x}

Information

ESRI Dark Hillshade

https://services.arcgisonline.com/arcgis/rest/services/Elevation/World_Hillshade_Dark/MapServer/tile/{z}/{y}/{x}

Information

Stamen Watercolor

https://watercolormaps.collection.cooperhewitt.org/tile/watercolor/{z}/{x}/{y}.jpg

Information

USDA NAIP (USA only)

https://gis.apfo.usda.gov/arcgis/rest/services/NAIP/USDA_CONUS_PRIME/ImageServer/tile/{z}/{y}/{x}

Information

USGS Topo (USA only)

https://basemap.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/rest/services/USGSTopo/MapServer/tile/{z}/{y}/{x}

Information

USGS Imagery (USA only)

https://basemap.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/rest/services/USGSImageryOnly/MapServer/tile/{z}/{y}/{x}

Information

Finding custom basemaps

Felt supports custom map basemaps via any web-based map service supporting the popular XYZ map tile format. Compatible map tiles can be created via Mapbox Studio, found on ArcGIS servers, purchased from Planet, or found freely online via providers like Stamen.

ArcGIS

ESRI has a variety of supported global basemaps, which can be found here.

Cached image services can be hosted via ArcGIS Online or on your own organization’s server. Access individual basemap image tiles via the Image Tile REST API:

https://{imageservice-url}/tile/**{z}/{y}/{x}**

Note that the order of {x} and {y} are switched in ArcGIS compared to other services here.

Image Tile | ArcGIS REST APIs | Esri DeveloperEsriGeoDev

Sample tile URL templates

Use these directly in Felt:

MapTiler

Tiles hosted by MapTiler can be used in Felt via Raster Tiles for Leaflet JS

Raster tiles in Leaflet JS | Leaflet | MapTilermaptiler

Mapbox

Custom styles built in Mapbox can be used in Felt via the Mapbox Static Tiles API

You can find the username and ID for your style by looking at the “Style URL” after clicking “Share” in Mapbox Studio. Mapbox API access tokens are available on your account page,https://account.mapbox.com.

• Tile size should be set to 256

• Replace z, x, y values with variables: {z}/{x}/{y}

• Add your access token to the end of the URL

Sample URL:

https://api.mapbox.com/styles/v1/..../tiles/256/{z}/{x}/{y}@2x?access_token=[ADD_TOKEN_HERE]

The Static Tiles API converts your style into raster tiles by rendering every requested tile on the server. This limits some styling capabilities and also incurs extra cost. Please refer to the pricing section for details.

Static Tiles API | API DocsMapbox

Sample tile URL template

Use this in Felt with your Mapbox token:

Planet

Daily satellite scenes from Planet can be accessed via Tile Services:

https://tiles1.planet.com/data/v1/{type}/{id}/**{z}/{x}/{y}**.png

For non-commercial uses, Planet hosts imagery of earth’s tropical regions for Norway's International Climate and Forests Initiative (NICFI).

Tile Services | Planet Documentationdevelopers.planet.com

Sample tile URL template

Use this in Felt with your Planet API token:

Stamen

Stamen Design published a selection of map layers useful for visualizing data or beautifying a map. Starting in November 2023, you need to create a Stadia Maps account to use Stamen Maps. See here to get started

For docs on this migration, see here. Read the full announcement here.

If you want to use the watercolor map by Stamen as a layer or basemap, use this this URL to upload:

Other Sources

• The Roblabs collection of xyz raster tiles for use in maps built for mobile devices, QGIS and Mapbox Styles: https://github.com/roblabs/xyz-raster-sources

• Trail Notes collection tile services: https://www.trailnotes.org/FetchMap/TileServeSource.html 💡 Change the uppercase “Z”, “Y”, and “X” to lowercase for these to work in Felt

• Geocaching Map Enhancements map sources:https://geo.inge.org.uk/gme_maps.htm

Frequently asked questions