Leaflet

an open-source JavaScript library
for mobile-friendly interactive maps

Jul 18, 2018 — Leaflet 1.3.3 has been released!

Leaflet is the leading open-source JavaScript library for mobile-friendly interactive maps. Weighing just about 38 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://{s}.tile.openstreetmap.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png', {
    attribution: '&copy; <a href="https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright">OpenStreetMap</a> contributors'
}).addTo(map);

L.marker([51.5, -0.09]).addTo(map)
    .bindPopup('A pretty CSS3 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 CSS3 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:3857/4326/3395 out 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 CSS3 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 7–11

Mobile

  • Safari for iOS 7+
  • Android browser 2.2+, 3.1+, 4+
  • 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. If not, please vote for the feature on the Leaflet UserVoice page.

Getting Involved

Let's create the best mapping library that will ever exist! Leaflet is developed by Vladimir Agafonkin of Mapbox with a team of dedicated 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, showing your support for your favorite feature suggestions on Leaflet UserVoice page, tweeting 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.

© 2017 Vladimir Agafonkin. Maps © OpenStreetMap contributors.