ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Mapnik

Mapnik is a magic tool that helps us create maps on our computers. It's like having a big box of crayons to draw with, but instead of colors, Mapnik has a bunch of special symbols and shapes that it can use to draw things like roads, buildings, and rivers.

When we want to create a map using Mapnik, we first need to tell it what we want the map to look like. We do this by writing a special code that tells Mapnik what symbols and shapes to use, where to place them on the map, and what colors to use.

Once we've written the code, we give it to Mapnik, and it does all the hard work for us! Mapnik takes our code and uses it to create a beautiful and accurate map that we can use for all sorts of things.

So basically, Mapnik is a computer program that helps us draw maps by using special symbols and shapes. All we have to do is tell it what we want the map to look like, and it does the rest for us!