Leaflet is the leading open-source JavaScript library for mobile-friendly interactive maps. Weighing just about 42 KB of JS, it has all the mapping features most developers ever need.
Leaflet is designed with simplicity, performance and usability in mind. It works efficiently across all major desktop and mobile platforms, can be extended with lots of plugins, has a beautiful, easy to use and well-documented API and a simple, readable source code that is a joy to contribute to.
Here we create a map in the 'map' div, add tiles of our choice, and then add a marker with some text in a popup:
var map = L.map('map').setView([51.505, -0.09], 13);
L.tileLayer('https://tile.openstreetmap.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png', {
attribution: '© <a href="https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright">OpenStreetMap</a> contributors'
}).addTo(map);
L.marker([51.5, -0.09]).addTo(map)
.bindPopup('A pretty CSS popup.<br> Easily customizable.')
.openPopup();Learn more with the quick start guide, check out other tutorials, or head straight to the API documentation. If you have any questions, take a look at the FAQ first.
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Features
Leaflet doesn't try to do everything for everyone. Instead it focuses on making the basic things work perfectly.
Layers Out of the Box
- Tile layers, WMS
- Markers, Popups
- Vector layers: polylines, polygons, circles, rectangles
- Image overlays
- GeoJSON
Interaction Features
- Drag panning with inertia
- Scroll wheel zoom
- Pinch-zoom on mobile
- Double click zoom
- Zoom to area (shift-drag)
- Keyboard navigation
- Events: click, mouseover, etc.
- Marker dragging
Visual Features
- Zoom and pan animation
- Tile and popup fade animation
- Very nice default design for markers, popups and map controls
- Retina resolution support
Customization Features
- Pure CSS popups and controls for easy restyling
- Image- and HTML-based markers
- A simple interface for custom map layers and controls
- Custom map projections (with
EPSG:3857/4326/3395out of the box) - Powerful OOP facilities for extending existing classes
Performance Features
- Hardware acceleration on mobile makes it feel as smooth as native apps
- Utilizing CSS features to make panning and zooming really smooth
- Smart polyline/polygon rendering with dynamic clipping and simplification makes it very fast
- Modular build system for leaving out features you don't need
- Tap delay elimination on mobile
Map Controls
- Zoom buttons
- Attribution
- Layer switcher
- Scale
Browser Support
Desktop
- Chrome
- Firefox
- Safari 5+
- Opera 12+
- IE 9–11
- Edge
Mobile
- Safari for iOS 7+
- Chrome for mobile
- Firefox for mobile
- IE10+ for Win8 devices
Misc
- Extremely lightweight
- No external dependencies
If you find some feature really missing in Leaflet, first check if there's a plugin for it and if it's been discussed before already on GitHub issues. If not, please open a new GitHub issue.
Getting Involved
Let's create the best mapping library in the world! Leaflet was originally created by Volodymyr Agafonkin, but is now developed by a big community of contributors. Pull requests are always welcome. However, there are many more ways to get involved with the development of Leaflet.
You can help the project tremendously by discovering and reporting bugs, improving documentation, helping others on Stack Overflow, GIS Stack Exchange and GitHub issues, X to @LeafletJS and spreading the word about Leaflet among your colleagues and friends.
Check out the contribution guide for more information on getting involved with Leaflet development.