FELT (https://felt.com) is a new collaborative online mapping platform.
The platform offers modern tools for creating maps that are easy to make and share.
Registering with FELT
First of all, FELT is free to use. But you need to register to access the tools for putting maps online.
Once you have logged in, you will find yourself in your workspace:
Click on NEW MAP to start building your map.
The FELT interface
The default map background is OpenStreetMap.
At the bottom of the window is the map toolbar:
These tools allow you to:
- plant pins on the map
- draw routes
- freehand drawing
- cut layers
- add predefined layers
- draw polygons
- enter text boxes
- display notes
- include objects from web addresses
- load “whatever you want” (dixit the editor)
By the way, Felt supports point, line and polygon data in a wide range of formats and file sizes, up to 5 GB:
Spatial data
- ESRI Shapefiles (.shp)
- GeoJSON
- Geopackage
- Geodatabase (.gdb)
- KML
- KMZ
- GPS formats .gpx, .tcx, .fit
- Native raster formats: Geotiff, GPKG, ASCII grids
- Image formats .png and .jpg if accompanied by a World file
- Tiled rasters from URL in XYZ format
Tabular data
Felt can read geospatial data from tabular file formats such as Excel spreadsheets (.xls , .xlsx ), CSV files ( .csv , .tsv , .txt , etc), and Numbers files ( .numbers ).
- If the data contains real coordinates, such as latitudes and longitudes
- If data contains addresses ( Geocoding addresses )
- If the data contains codes or boundary names, such as FIPS codes, ZIP codes, states, etc.
Images and PDFs
FELT can overlay images and PDFs on a map. Supported formats include . jpg , . png , . heic , .webp , . svg , . pdf , and many more.
At the bottom right of the window you’ll find a block of tools
The arrow allows you to center the map on your position and display it.
The – and + buttons control zoom.
And, last but not least, the , lets you change the map background.
The + button allows you to display a series of available map backgrounds, or point to a tile background of your choice.
At the top left of the window you can customize the title of your map.
And finally, at the top right of the window you’ll find the collaborative tools:
The SHARE button lets you configure map sharing:
The Copy link option lets you integrate the map into any web page.
