Vector Tiles

Vector tiles store geospatial features (points, lines, polygons) in tiled chunks instead of pre-rendered raster images — smaller payloads and dynamic styling in the browser.

Source

• Mapbox vector tiles glossary
• Vector tile specification
• awesome-vector-tiles

Why vector tiles

vs Raster	Benefit
File size	Only features in tile bounds, simplified per zoom
Styling	Recolor roads/labels client-side without re-baking tiles
Interaction	Hit-test features for tooltips and filters

Common stack

• PostGIS ST_AsMVT() — generate MVT from SQL (guide)
• tippecanoe — build tiles from GeoJSON
• Mapbox GL JS / MapLibre — render vector tile sources

Related

• Modern FOSS spatial stack
• GIS