The Protomaps project consists of: The open PMTiles format; The tools and ecosystem for creating and publishing PMTiles; A basemap PMTiles created from OpenStreetMap data and other open sources. Mapping apps need background context to help humans understand where things are. The base layer has water bodies, buildings and roads. You could use Google Maps and Apple maps for those, but Protomaps is open source! Two key aspects of a basemap are labeling and generalization.
