If you’ve been considering buying a MapTechnica Tile Set (c’mon, you know I’m talking about you), you now have a risk-free way to try a sample tile set to see if it will work for your map project.

I created a special tile set that contains the Rhode Island tile set and supporting data, along with sample files that help you get going quickly. For more details, visit the Free 5-Digit ZIP Code Sample Set Information page over at MapTechnica.

Lots going on over at my side-project, MapTechnica, lately. In addition to the US 5-Digit Zip Code Maps and US County Boundary Maps, I’ve just turned on City maps.

Looking back, I should have started with these given how cool they turned out to be.  In truth, though, I didn’t realize the data and shapefiles for the cities were in the vast Tiger/Line database since the US Census Bureau calls them “places,” not “cities.” Oh, well.

Serendipitously, the city boundaries work amazingly well with the city labels and information already embedded in the Google Map layer, so the effect is a truly additive mapping product without the need for map markers.

I’m still working on productizing the tile set and database, but that should be up in the next few days.  In the mean time, head over to the free US Cities Boundary Map Tool and play around.  As always, I’d love any feedback you might have.