Mapbox is a commercial suite of mapping tools supporting the creation of simple, attractive, modestly-interactive embedded maps. Mapbox maps may accommodate point value or coverage data uploaded in .kml, .json, or .csv format. In addition to the base maps provided by Mapbox through the web-based Mapbox Editor application, map themes can be built from scratch using the Mapbox Studio desktop application.
Mapbox themes can be easily used as map tiles outside of the tool itself; Mapbox tiles are widely used as base maps in interactive digital humanities projects, even if the project is supported by a different tool, such as Leaflet. Map data can be exported easily from as either .kml or .json, and code is provided to facilitate embedding.
Mapbox plans vary widely in price, though a free option is available. The free “Starter” option allows for the upload of only one custom base map, and only 100 MB of storage are provided. Superior features are added gradually to the various grades of paid Mapbox plan. Because Mapbox was created for corporate use, the “Standard” and “Premium” plans assume a monthly visitor count and technical support requirements above and beyond the needs of a typical digital humanities project.
Example Applications
While Mapbox’s default and custom basemaps are used fairly extensively in projects running on Leaflet and other web-based mapping platforms, the author is not aware of any digital humanities projects which use Mapbox exclusively.