Liminal Substack Map Inline

A specialized utility to generate ultra-horizontal, minimalist vector locator maps tailored for substack publications and articles. It uses local GeoJSON boundaries of Italy and compiles high-resolution inline graphics with smooth edge-fading and regional inset keymaps.

Features

• Substack-Ready Palette: Tailored to sit beautifully on standard cream substack backplates (Background: #FDFCF1, vector outline color: #5D5A37).
• Aspect Ratio: Designed for an ultra-horizontal single cropped layout ($24:9$ ratio, rendering at high-res $4800 \times 1800$ pixels).
• Edge Fading: Linear gradients at the top and bottom edges ($150\text{px}$ fade zones) to blend the map seamlessly into the surrounding article body.
• Floating Inset Keymap: A borderless, clean keymap of Italy placed in the top-left corner that automatically highlights the target region.
• GeoJSON Caching: Automatically downloads and caches click-that-hood's Italy regions GeoJSON locally for offline, zero-network generation.
• Headless Chrome Rendering: Compiles HTML/SVG templates and leverages your system's headless Google Chrome to snap crisp PNG outputs.

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Installation

Prerequisites

1. Python 3.x
2. Google Chrome (default location /Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google Chrome on macOS, or customizable via CLI)

No external Python dependencies are required (uses standard libraries).

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Usage

1. Generating from Presets

The tool contains preconfigured coordinates for three location locators:

• monti_prenestini_locator (Lazio)
• pettorano_sul_gizio_locator (Abruzzo)
• fontainemore_locator (Valle d'Aosta)

Generate them using the --preset argument:

./generate.py --preset monti_prenestini_locator
./generate.py --preset pettorano_sul_gizio_locator
./generate.py --preset fontainemore_locator

2. Generating a Custom Map

You can specify custom coordinates, highlight region, and layout settings using CLI options:

./generate.py \
  --lat 45.6467 \
  --lon 7.8594 \
  --region "Valle d'Aosta/Vallée d'Aoste" \
  --name custom_map \
  --fade-height 150 \
  --keymap-y 95 \
  --keymap-height 170

Options

Option	Description
--preset	Load predefined map configurations from presets.json
--lat	Latitude of target location marker
--lon	Longitude of target location marker
--region	Italy region name to highlight in keymap/main map (e.g., Lazio)
--name	Base file name of generated outputs
--ref-lat	Latitude of a secondary reference point (e.g. Rome coordinates)
--ref-lon	Longitude of a secondary reference point
--fade-height	Height in pixels of top/bottom gradients (default: 150)
--keymap-y	Inset keymap Y placement on viewBox canvas (default: 95)
--keymap-height	Inset keymap vertical scale height (default: 170)
--output-dir	Folder to save the output files (default: .)
--chrome	Path to Google Chrome binary (default: macOS default path)

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Presets Config (presets.json)

You can view and modify presets in the presets.json file:

{
  "monti_prenestini_locator": {
    "lat": 41.87,
    "lon": 12.90,
    "region": "Lazio",
    "ref_lat": 41.902783,
    "ref_lon": 12.496366
  }
}

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Output Files

For each execution, the script generates:

1. A target SVG-embedded HTML web-view template ([name].html).
2. A high-resolution PNG render screenshot ([name].png).