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I have a project to create historical maps and would like to use GeoJSON as a default file format. However, I'm finding that there are 2 main problems with this:

  1. There are not much available historical maps in GeoJSON/shapefiles
  2. Creating shapes in GeoJSON is not that intuitive or accessible even with such tools as geojson.io

With regard to the latter, creating the shapes to conform to coastlines and natural boundaries is difficult. I haven't found a tool or technique (yet) that will enable me or others to produce these historical maps in GeoJSON to scale.

The strategy I am thinking of going with is to use current country Shapefiles(these resource exist, NaturalEarth) and then just modifying them to fit my needs.

Does anyone have any suggestions, thoughts, solutions on how to create historical maps in GeoJSON easily and intuitively?

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    You might prefer using a GIS database format rather than GeoJSON as it is a raw data format (less efficient than binary formats). A good source of information is macwright.com/2015/03/23/geojson-second-bite.html Commented Apr 14, 2021 at 2:36
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    Shapefile and GeoJSON are very different formats, and incompatible. Are you using "shapefiles" as a synonym for "datasets"? Commented Apr 14, 2021 at 2:54
  • I agree with both, capture/store as a nice binary format (PostGIS might be worth the effort) and if you need JSON then export - much easier than trying to write JSON or XML or WKT representations from scratch. Though if you really want to work in JSON you could try using OGR2OGR to convert your shapefiles to this format. Commented Apr 14, 2021 at 3:18
  • Have you seen pleiades.stoa.org ? Commented Apr 14, 2021 at 7:40
  • Yes I know shapefiles(esri format) and GeoJSON are different formats. However, one can convert between the other. I'm using GeoJSON because its easier to work with in web dev. My app has a map component where I would like users to upload GeoJSON which can be layered on top of a mapping solution such as GMap or Mapbox. I'm not sure who choose to close this question as this is a valid question. If you choose it, then you are expressing an opinion. Commented Apr 15, 2021 at 3:56

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