Why Qartography
Built the way mappers actually work.
Four ideas the whole app is built around — not features bolted on afterward.
Built for Mappers
Every tag, preset, and field you'd expect from iD or JOSM — reachable in two taps instead of twelve.
Edit with Precision
Drag a vertex into place, split a way mid-segment, or grab the ghost node between two points to add detail.
Open & Connected
Speaks OpenStreetMap's real API — proper OAuth, live changesets, no walled garden.
Map a Better World
Every save advances a map that belongs to everyone who uses it — no ads, no lock-in, no catch.
Screenshots
A field editor that feels like a native app — because it is one.
Precision editing
Draw the way iD does.
Tap to place a vertex, drag to fine-tune it, or grab the faint ghost node between two points to insert detail mid-segment — the same vocabulary OpenStreetMap's own web editor uses, now built for touch and Apple Pencil.
- Drag any vertex to reposition it after the fact
- Ghost-node midpoints for adding detail without redrawing
- Full node, way, and area support
Two ways to map
Survey on foot, or map from the couch.
Walk your neighborhood and let GPS tracing record the shape as you go, or trace building footprints from licensed aerial imagery at your desk. Either way earns real XP toward your next level and streak.
- Distance-filtered GPS tracing, no jittery noise
- Armchair mapping over Bing & Esri imagery
- Levels, streaks, and quests that reward real edits
Reviewed, not automatic
Nothing ships without your say-so.
Every batch of edits opens as one changeset for review — comment, source, and imagery tags included — before a single byte reaches OpenStreetMap's servers. No silent background uploads, ever.
- Auto-drafted changeset comments you can edit
- Multi-select source & imagery-used tagging
- Automatic conflict retry if someone edits first
One build. Written once in SwiftUI and genuinely native everywhere — including a full desktop pass on Apple Silicon Macs, running the exact code your iPad does.
Built in the open
For the map that's built the same way.
OpenStreetMap is written by people who walk their own neighborhoods. Qartography is built the same way — open source, no data harvesting, and no shortcuts through imagery we don't have permission to trace from.