r-tmap/tmap

PMTiles support

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#1229 opened on Mar 3, 2026

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Help wanted

Description

For quick large interactive maps, PMTiles seems the way to go, thanks to @walkerke for making this possible in R via pmtiles: https://github.com/walkerke/pmtiles

I also found another pmtiles package: https://github.com/nptscot/pmtiles Do these packages do the same @wangzhao0217 and @Robinlovelace ?

How to integrate this in tmap? (@tim-salabim @Nowosad)

I guess that we could regard a pmtiles server as a 'shape'. So

tm_shape(pmtiles_folder) + tm_polygons(fill = "varA")

should work.

Which modes?

  • Certainly mapbox and maplibre because the functionality is already there via mapgl.
  • Leaflet? Is there any R-implementation?
  • "plot" mode? I guess it could be possible to get an sf object from a pmtiles server with a certain bounding box.

Do you know this @walkerke or @tim-salabim ?

I am still very new to pmtiles, so happy to learn about this.

Contributor guide

Tech stack
None
Domain
backend
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
4
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
over 1 week
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
active
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
needs investigation
Prerequisites
Understanding of tmap's shape and mode systemKnowledge of PMTiles formatFamiliarity with mapbox/maplibre/leaflet rendering
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
15
Research direction
Investigate the pmtiles R packages (walkerke/pmtiles and nptscot/pmtiles) to understand their APIs. Explore how tmap currently handles shapes and modes (e.g., mapbox, maplibre, leaflet, plot). Determine if leaflet has PMTiles support in R. Consider modifying tmap to accept PMTiles as a shape source, possibly by converting to sf objects for plot mode. Look at related discussions in the issue comments for guidance.