Tilegrams is a free online website that lets you generate tiled map for any dataset. This is a great visualization tool for researchers as it can generate precise maps of different countries against a specific dataset. It provides for some datasets already for countries like the USA, France, India, Brazil, etc. There is an option to specify a custom dataset and it will generate the corresponding map accordingly. After the map has generated, you can export that as SVG file or you can get the corresponding code in TopoJSON format.
With Tilegrams website, you can create a tiled map where different regions are sized proportionally to a chosen dataset. There is a specific format for the dataset that you have to follow in case you want to supply a custom data. However, there are some useful datasets already such as for population, pitch electoral college, and many more. The datasets are specific for the different countries that it supports and all you have to do is select one. It will generate the map in no time and then you can export that easily.
Free Tiled Map Generator for any Dataset for Research: Tilegrams
There is no sign up or something like that is required in order to use it. Its source code is available on GitHub and if you want then you can host it on your own server as well. The online version of Tilegrams can be found here and all the controls to generate the map are on the left sidebar as you can see in the screenshot below. There is even an option to upload a custom dataset to visualize. However, here you will also have to create your datasets as specified by Tilegrams.
Select a country and a dataset to generate a tiled map instantly. You can see the generated map in the right pane and even click on it to see details about a specific region. You can do this for any dataset and the supported countries. After you are done with this, you can simply export the map as SVG or TopoJSON.
This is how you can generate tiled maps for free with Tilegrams website. Its source code is available on GitHub here and you can peek into it if you want. If you are a programmer then you can take part in its development and maybe try adding some more features to it.
Closing words…
If you are into research or some related line of work then you will definitely find Tilegrams useful. Generate tiled maps here and then embed them on your projects or online reports with ease. The process is very simple and straightforward and I hope in the later updates there will be more maps to generate.
