About wallcarta
wallcarta is a free online map poster maker for the DIY printer. Turn any city, neighbourhood, or street address on earth into a custom, printable map poster: search for a place, choose a palette and a font, frame the view exactly how you like it, and get a high-resolution digital download ready for the wall.
Every palette ships with its own typography and caption styling, so an unedited poster already looks designed — then you fine-tune the colours, borders, orientation, bearing, and tilt until it feels right.
How it works
- Search a place. Find any city, town, neighbourhood, or address with OpenStreetMap search, then pan and zoom to frame the exact area you want.
- Style it. Pick from 10 curated colour palettes and 6 typefaces, add a border, set the orientation, and tilt or rotate the map for a three-dimensional perspective.
- Title it. Add a place name and coordinates as a caption — the part that turns a map into a keepsake.
- Export and print. Download a high-resolution file and print at home or send it to a print shop.
Printing & paper sizes
wallcarta is built for printing, not just screens. It is a DIY, digital-download tool: you get a high-resolution map file for print and run it off at home or hand it to a print shop. Exports are composited at print DPI so type, roads, and labels stay crisp at full size — drawn from vector data for the exact dimensions you choose, never upscaled from a screenshot.
- Resolution: free PNG exports at 150 DPI (great for home printing up to A3), or high-resolution exports up to 300 DPI — the professional standard for large posters.
- ISO A-series: A4, A3, A2, A1, and A0.
- US sizes: Letter (8.5 × 11"), Legal, and Tabloid (11 × 17").
- US art prints: 12 × 16", 16 × 20", 18 × 24", and 24 × 36" — the most common framed-print and gallery sizes.
- Square & orientation: a 1:1 square format, plus portrait or landscape with identical physical proportions.
- Press-ready: optional 3 mm bleed, crop marks, and PDF output so files go straight to a professional or online print service.
For framing, standard sizes like 18 × 24" and A2 fit off-the-shelf frames and mounts, so there is no custom framing cost.
Palettes & typography
Ten palettes span the looks people actually hang: clean, minimalist, Scandinavian-style prints; bold modern map art; and classic black-and-white street maps. Choose from Paper, Midnight, Mono, Ink, Chalk, Blueprint, Vintage, Coastal, Forest, and Sunset — each paired with a matching font from a set of six (Geist, Inter, Playfair, DM Serif, Space Grotesk, and Bebas Neue) for custom typography that suits the room. Switching palettes resets the styling to that theme's designed defaults, so you always start from something that looks intentional.
Map data & rendering
Maps are rendered from OpenStreetMap data via Protomaps vector tiles, and place search is powered by OSM Nominatim. Because the render is vector-based, exports are composited at the target paper size and DPI rather than stretched from a low-resolution image.
Frequently asked questions
- What resolution will my map poster print at?
- Free exports are 150 DPI PNGs — crisp for sharing and home printing up to about A3. For larger walls, the high-resolution option exports up to 300 DPI, the standard for professional poster printing, so a 24 × 36" or A1 print stays sharp from reading distance and beyond.
- Which paper sizes can I print?
- Every ISO A-series size (A4, A3, A2, A1, A0), US sizes (Letter 8.5 × 11", Legal, Tabloid 11 × 17"), the popular US art-print sizes (12 × 16", 16 × 20", 18 × 24", 24 × 36"), and a square format. Portrait and landscape share the same physical proportions, so a poster looks identical either way.
- Does it support bleed and crop marks for a print shop?
- Yes. The high-resolution export adds 3 mm bleed and crop marks and can output PDF, so files drop straight into a professional or online print service (think local print shops, or services like Printful, Prodigi, or your neighbourhood copy shop) with no extra prep.
- Where does the map data come from?
- Maps are rendered from OpenStreetMap data delivered as Protomaps vector tiles, and place search is powered by OSM Nominatim. Vector tiles mean every label and road is drawn at full resolution for the size you export — nothing is upscaled from a screenshot.
- How much does it cost?
- Designing and exporting a 150 DPI poster is free. You only pay if you order a physical print from a third-party print service, or opt into a high-resolution press-ready file.
- What makes a good map poster gift?
- Pick a place that means something — the city where you met, a childhood street, a wedding venue, a marathon route, or a favourite holiday town — then match a palette and font to the room it will hang in. Map posters make personalised gifts for anniversaries, housewarmings, weddings, and graduations.