Backgrounds

Select and customize background basemap options to complement your spatial data layers.

Choose from Felt's background 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 backgrounds from URL sources that support XYZ map tile format, including OpenStreetMap, MapTiler, Mapbox Studio, and ArcGIS. You can also choose a solid color background to make your data the focus of attention.

Felt backgrounds

• Click the Background button in the top right section of the toolbar to either choose the Default or Satellite background option or to choose a solid Color as your background

• For more Felt options, click the overflow menu (three dots) next to the background options to choose from additional background types

  • Light theme

  • Dark theme

  • Turn labels on or off with the Show labels option

  • Choose a solid color for your background with the Add solid color... option

  

The color and halo for labels are automatically reversed when using the dark or satellite Felt background.

• After selecting your background, for polygon layers, you can adjust layer positioning using the "Position" option in the style editor to control whether your data appears above or below background features like roads and water.

Best practices

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

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

1. Satellite works well if you need more details from the background 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 backgrounds

You can use your own XYZ (“Slippy map”) tiles as a Felt background by specifying a URL. You can also set advanced options like the minimum and maximum zoom levels, 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}.

Sharing your map with many viewers may incur in high costs or running out of credits.

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.

To set a custom background

• Click the Background button in the top right section of the toolbar

• Click the overflow menu (three dots) next to the background options.

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

• Paste your XYZ tile URL from services like OpenStreetMap, MapTiler, Mapbox Studio, or ArcGIS.

  • Your tile URL template must include space for {z}=zoom, {x}=column, and {y}=row values like the example above. Many popular online map services make URLs available in this format.

• Provide a title for your custom background.

• Under Additional Settings, you can:

  • Customize the attribution text

  • Adjust UI element colors for legibility

• Click Add Background to apply your custom background to the map.

Finding custom backgrounds

Felt supports custom map backgrounds 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

Cached image services can be hosted via ArcGIS Online or on your own organization’s server. Access individual background 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 | ArcGIS DevelopersArcGIS REST APIs

Sample tile URL templates

Use these directly in Felt:

World imagery service	https://services.arcgisonline.com/arcgis/rest/services/World_Imagery/MapServer/tile/{z}/{y}/{x}
Dark gray basemap	https://services.arcgisonline.com/arcgis/rest/services/Canvas/World_Dark_Gray_Base/MapServer/tile/{z}/{y}/{x}

MapTiler

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

https://api.maptiler.com/maps/{layer}/{z}/{x}/{y}.png?key={key}

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:

https://api.mapbox.com/styles/v1/feltmaps/clb2k8qp0002i14p8bge81ejh/tiles/256/**{z}/{x}/{y}**@2x?access_token={YOUR_MAPBOX_TOKEN}

Users with whom you share a Felt map with a custom Mapbox background will be able to view the API 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 Overview

Sample tile URL template

Use this in Felt with your Planet API token:

https://tiles3.planet.com/basemaps/v1/planet-tiles/planet_medres_normalized_analytic_2022-10_mosaic/gmap/{z}/{x}/{y}.png?api_key=YOUR_PLANET_TOKEN

Users with whom you share a Felt map with a custom Planet background will be able to view the 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 background, use this this URL to upload:

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

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