morecantile

What it is and what it does

Morecantile is a library for constructing and querying map tile grids (TileMatrixSets) that conform to the OGC Two Dimensional Tile Matrix Set specification version 2.0. It extends the concept of Web Mercator tile indexing to support arbitrary coordinate reference systems and tile grid definitions. The library provides a set of built-in grids covering common projections (Web Mercator, UTM, polar stereographic, and regional systems) and allows you to define custom grids.

You use it to convert between tile coordinates and geographic or projected bounds, retrieve bounding boxes for tiles in their native CRS or in geographic coordinates, and manage tile grid metadata. It's commonly used as a foundation for tile-based geospatial services, raster tile generation, and OGC-compliant tile APIs.

Use it for:

• Generate tile coordinates and bounds for raster data served in non-Web Mercator projections like UTM or polar stereographic.
• Build OGC-compliant tile servers that support multiple TileMatrixSet definitions.
• Convert between tile indices and geographic/projected coordinates for geospatial analysis.
• Integrate tile grid logic into map rendering or tile caching systems.
• Support regional mapping applications using country-specific or continent-specific tile grids.

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

Construct and work with map tile grids following the OGC TileMatrixSet specification, supporting Web Mercator and many other coordinate reference systems beyond the standard Web Mercator grid.

Yes. Morecantile is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, low install friction, and permissive licensing. Install it if you need to work with map tiles in coordinate systems other than Web Mercator, or if you're building OGC-compliant geospatial services. The library is well-established in the geospatial Python ecosystem.

Install

morecantile on PyPI

pip install morecantile

uv add morecantile

poetry add morecantile

Installing morecantile

Before you install

Low friction: pure Python wheel with four runtime dependencies (attrs, click, pydantic, pyproj). Actively maintained with recent releases; last commit 2026-08-09.

License in practice

MIT License permits unrestricted use, modification, and distribution with minimal restrictions—suitable for commercial and open-source projects alike.

Quickstart

pip install morecantile

import morecantile

tms = morecantile.tms.get("WebMercatorQuad")
print(tms.xy_bbox)
print(tms.bounds(morecantile.Tile(10, 10, 4)))

Requires Python 3.11 or later; pyproj dependency may require system PROJ libraries on some platforms.

Verify before relying

• Whether pyproj's system-level PROJ dependency adds meaningful install friction on Windows or macOS.
• Performance characteristics when working with large numbers of tiles or custom TileMatrixSet definitions.

Package facts

Evidence: morecantile-7.0.3-py3-none-any.whl

Keywords: GIS, Map Tile, TMS, TileMatrixSet

Tags

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