Local Exif Geo Map 📍

A powerful, privacy-focused, browser-based tool to visualize and analyze GPS data from your photos. Simply drag and drop images to generate interactive maps, heatmaps, elevation profiles, and trip statistics.

Why?

I've always wanted a self-hosted tool to analyze my photos and turn them into maps. Then came my Croatian vacation, where the wind decided my hammock was its mortal enemy. At 2 AM, sleep-deprived and slightly windburnt, I retreated to the beach and coded the entire core of this app on my phone like a complete maniac.

It's still a beautiful disaster—powered by sea breeze, insomnia, and questionable life choices. But shockingly, most of it actually works.

All translations besides Bavarian (which I painstakingly did myself, because I'm apparently that specific flavor of weird) were churned out by AI, mostly EuroLLM and Claude. So if German reads like a robot having a stroke, you know why.

📸 Screenshots

Interactive Map	Dark Mode	Elevation Profile	Overpass Import

✨ Features

📷 Image Analysis

• Drag & Drop Upload: Simply drop photos onto the sidebar to extract GPS data
• EXIF GPS Extraction: Automatically reads GPS coordinates, timestamps, and elevation from image metadata
• Orphaned Photo Sync: New! Photos without GPS data are automatically placed on the map if they match the timestamp of an uploaded GPX track (needs to be tested)
• Batch Processing: Handle thousands of images (tested up to 50,000+ photos)
• Progress Tracking: Real-time progress bar during image processing

Interactive Mapping

• 12+ Map Styles: OpenStreetMap, Esri Satellite/Terrain, CartoDB (light/dark/voyager), OpenTopoMap, OPNV (transport), OpenRailwayMap, and more
• Track Customization:
  • Line Style: Solid, Dashed, or Dotted lines
  • Visuals: Adjustable line color, thickness, and opacity
• Track Points:
  • Markers: Custom shapes (circle, square, star, etc.), colors, sizes, and borders
  • Timestamps: Toggle permanent timestamp labels for every point
  • Direction Arrows: Visualize movement direction with adjustable size/spacing
• Auto-Follow: "Follow Mode" keeps the map centered on your position during playback

📍 Points of Interest & OpenStreetMap Data

• POI Editor: Click anywhere on the map to add custom waypoints with names and descriptions
• OpenStreetMap Data: Load nearby POIs directly from Overpass API (with "Server Busy" handling):
  • Tourism: Viewpoints, Museums, Hotels, Hostels, Information Centers, Attractions
  • Food & Drink: Restaurants, Cafes, Fast Food, Bars, Pubs, Biergartens
  • Water: Drinking Water, Springs
  • Peaks: Mountain Peaks (with elevation in meters)
  • Historic: Castles, Ruins, Monuments, Memorials, Archaeological Sites
  • Nature: Camping, Huts, Nature Reserves (NSG), Landscape Protection (LSG), Bird Sanctuaries (VSG), FFH Areas
  • Transport: Bus Stops, Train Stations
• Info Boxes: Click any POI to see details:
  • Name & Type
  • Elevation (if available)
  • Website Links
  • Wikipedia Links (auto-detected languages)

🔥 Heatmap

• Density Visualization: See where you spent the most time
• 5 Color Schemes: Fire, Cool, Earth, Marine, Twilight
• Adjustable Parameters: Intensity, radius, blur, and opacity

📈 Elevation Profile

• Interactive Chart: Click on chart to highlight position on map and see exact statistics
• Zoom & Pan: Chart.js powered interactive elevation graph
• Statistics: Global Elevation gain/loss, min/max elevation
• Responsive: "Jump to Elevation Profile" link and expandable sidebar for detailed analysis

▶️ Animation

• Playback Controls: Play/pause your journey over time
• Adjustable Speed: 0.5x to 5x playback speed
• Follow Mode: Camera automatically follows current position
• Trail Effect: Visual path history during playback

📊 Statistics

• Total Distance: Calculated track length in km
• Duration: Time span from first to last photo
• Average Speed: Movement speed calculation
• Point Count: Number of GPS points from images and tracks

📅 Timeline

• Chronological View: See all track points ordered by time
• Jump to Position: Click timeline entries to navigate on map

💾 Export Options

• PNG Export: One-click download of the current map view as a high-quality PNG image (including all active layers, heatmaps, and markers)
• GPX Export: Export your analyzed photo track as a standard GPX file compatible with Strava, Garmin, Komoot, and Google Earth
• Backup: Save your curated map data for later use

🌐 Multi-Language Support

11 languages supported:

• 🇬🇧 English
• 🇩🇪 Deutsch
• 🇮🇹 Italiano
• 🇭🇷 Hrvatski
• 🇵🇱 Polski
• 🇪🇸 Español
• 🇺🇦 Українська
• 🇳🇱 Nederlands
• 🇸🇪 Svenska
• 🇳🇴 Norsk
• Bayerisch

🎨 UI/UX

• Dark Mode: Toggle between light and dark themes (dark by default)
• Responsive Design: Works on desktop and mobile browsers
• Collapsible Sections: Organize sidebar with expandable panels
• Toast Notifications: User-friendly feedback messages

🔒 Privacy First

Your photos never leave your device!

All GPS extraction and processing happens entirely in your browser. No images are uploaded to any server. The only network requests are:

• Loading map tiles (from tile providers like OpenStreetMap)
• Optional: Loading OSM POI data (from Overpass API)

This means your personal photos and location data remain 100% private. Also, there is no logging at all from the app.

🛠️ Technologies

📦 Installation & Usage

Requirements

• PHP 8.2 or higher
• A modern web browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge)

Installation

1. Clone the repository (or download as ZIP and extract)
2. Configure your web server point to the public/ directory

Deployment

For production use, deploy to any PHP-capable web server (Apache, Nginx with PHP-FPM, etc.)

📁 Project Structure

gps-track-viewer/
├── public/                 # Web root
│   ├── assets/
│   │   ├── js/            # Application JavaScript
│   │   │   ├── app.js     # Main application logic
│   │   │   └── TrackParser.js  # GPX/KML parsing
│   │   └── styles.css     # Application styles
│   ├── lib/               # PHP classes
│   │   ├── Assets/        # Asset handling
│   │   ├── Security/      # Session & security
│   │   ├── View/          # Template rendering
│   │   └── Config.php     # Configuration
│   ├── templates/         # PHP templates
│   │   └── app.php        # Main application template
│   ├── vendor/            # Frontend libraries (Leaflet, etc.)
│   ├── index.php          # Application entry point
│   └── router.php         # Development server router
└── README.md

⚠️ Limitations

• GPS Data Required: Only photos with embedded GPS EXIF data will be mapped
• Browser Memory: Very large batches (50,000+ images) may be slow on devices with limited RAM
• Tile Providers: Some map styles may have usage limits or require attribution
• OSM Data: Overpass API queries are limited to ~300 POIs per request to prevent overload

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit issues and pull requests.

🙏 Credits

GPS Track Viewer is built on the shoulders of giants. We thank the developers and contributors of these amazing open-source projects:

• Leaflet - Interactive maps (BSD 2-Clause)
• Leaflet.heat - Heatmap plugin (BSD 2-Clause)
• exifr - Fast EXIF extraction (MIT)
• Chart.js - Beautiful charts (MIT)
• dom-to-image - PNG export (MIT)
• OpenStreetMap - Map data (ODbL)

☕ Support the Project

If you find this useful and want to support: Bitcoin (BTC): bc1q3lz8vxpk0rchqn6dq8g08rkcqts425csuvnjr2477uzdenak5n8sfds2ke

📬 Contact

For questions, suggestions, or bug reports, please open an issue on GitHub.