Open Visualization Session Proposal: MapLibre Text Rendering With WebGL

[wipfli]

Proposal

Topic of the session

MapLibre Text Rendering With WebGL

Type of the session

• Collaborate
• Workshop
• Talk

Estimated duration of the session

40 minutes talk plus 20 minutes discussion maybe

Date and Time of the session

Level

• Beginner
• Intermediate
• Advanced

Pre-requisite knowledge

Some understanding of unicode might help.

Not required, but might be useful background reading: https://oliverwipfli.ch/about-text-rendering-in-maplibre-2023-10-17/

Describe the session

This talk will start with what a general purpose text rendering system such as a web browser or word process needs to accomplish to show text on a screen - a task which can be surprisingly complex. Then we will look at how MapLibre GL JS, a TypeScript map rendering engine, handles text rendering with WebGL. In particular, MapLibre's shortcomings shall be highlighted with respect to complex scripts such as Devanagari, Khmer, or Burmese but also we will discuss the limitations of Signed Distance Fields - a text rendering technique which just always results in sausage-like looking letters and icons.

Session facilitator(s), Github handle(s) and timezone(s)

Oliver Wipfli @wipfli CEST

Meeting notes and Virtual Meeting Link

Follow-up / Set-up sessions (if any)

Additional context (optional)

I am happy to travel to London for this event.

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[chrisgervang]

Hey Oliver! Thank you for your session submission - sounds like an interesting topic! We can probably do an hour for this, but may ask to reduce it to 45 min. We'll be building the agenda after all submissions come in around July 10th, and I'll be able to let you know.

Just to confirm, you're planning to attend in person, right? Unfortunately, we won't be able to support remote sessions this year. Looking forward to seeing you at the summit!

[wipfli]

Good to hear. Yes, I plan to come to London in person. Looking forward to it!

[chrisgervang]

Hey Oliver, just wanted to let you know the vis.gl TSC has accepted your submission! We'll follow up again with a proposed time slot. Looking forward to seeing you in London!

[wipfli]

Thanks

[chrisgervang]

Hey Oliver, we've scheduled your talk on Day 2 at 10:15 for 45 minutes, and you can view it in our draft agenda.

We'd like to feature your picture and title on our event website, similar to what we did last year (see last year's event page for reference). If you’re interested, please send us a recent photo and your current title.

[wipfli]

Thanks for the information @chrisgervang. You can use my github profile picture. As title you can put "Independent Consultant/Contractor".

[Pessimistress]

The latest event agenda is posted here. Please let me know if you need to update your picture/title/affiliation.
I am looking forward to your talk!