Real places. Your own point of view.
Block and Paper is a map print studio from Heap Labs LLC. You choose a place, compose its map, and adjust the colors and words. The result is made as a physical print.
The map starts with real geography.
Street and place data comes from OpenStreetMap contributors, with map tiles from OpenFreeMap. Location search uses Photon. Coverage and names can vary by place; the studio shows the map data available for the view you choose.
Neighborhoods need a little explanation.
A neighborhood can be an official area, a statistical unit, or simply the name people use for where they live. Those definitions do not always line up. We identify the source rather than claiming one universal set of boundaries.
90 official city neighborhoods
The studio also has Pittsburgh’s 90 official neighborhood areas. Nearby boroughs and townships use a separate municipal dataset. Your crop determines which areas appear; a city view does not include every surrounding town. Source ↗
77 official community areas
Chicago’s boundary styles use 77 official community areas. These areas do not separately label every neighborhood name used locally. Use the street style for a closer view of a particular address or neighborhood. Source ↗
34 mapped neighborhood areas
Cleveland’s boundary styles use a bundled set of 34 neighborhood areas. Names and edges follow that source. A closer crop shows only part of the dataset, and local names may differ from its labels. Source ↗
2020 neighborhood tabulation areas
New York’s boundary styles use 197 residential 2020 Neighborhood Tabulation Areas. These are statistical areas, not an agreement on every local neighborhood boundary. A borough or neighborhood crop shows a subset of them. Source ↗
80 administrative quartiers
Paris’s boundary styles use 80 administrative quartiers. These are different from the 20 arrondissements, which appear at town detail together with the communes of the inner suburbs. Check the names and the crop in the studio before saving your design. Source ↗
1,002 named London areas
London’s boundary styles use the 1,002 statistical areas of Greater London with the locally recognisable names given to them by the House of Commons Library, inside the 33 boroughs. They are not an agreement on every neighbourhood boundary; a crop shows the areas around your chosen spot. Source ↗
1,288 Tokyo machi
Tokyo’s boundary styles use the machi and ōaza mapped in OpenStreetMap across the 23 special wards and neighbouring cities, with English names where the map has them. Wards appear at town detail. A close crop keeps the lettering readable. Source ↗
11 Kyoto wards
Kyoto’s boundary styles use the city’s 11 wards from OpenStreetMap, such as Higashiyama, Nakagyō and Sakyō. Kyoto’s thousands of small chō are too fine to letter on a print, so the wards carry the names. Source ↗
117 rioni, quartieri and zone
Rome’s boundary styles use the 22 historic rioni, the quartieri and the zone of Roma Capitale as mapped in OpenStreetMap, with the 15 municipi at town detail. Trastevere, Monti and Prati are all here; check the crop for the names you want. Source ↗
Barcelona’s 73 barris
Barcelona’s boundary styles use the city’s 73 official barris as mapped in OpenStreetMap, from el Raval and the Gothic Quarter to Gràcia and el Poblenou, plus the barris of neighbouring municipis where they are mapped. Source ↗
Lisbon’s 24 freguesias
Lisbon’s boundary styles use the 24 freguesias of the 2012 reform, such as Alvalade, Belém, Estrela and Santa Maria Maior, together with those of neighbouring municípios, as mapped in OpenStreetMap. Historic bairros like Alfama sit inside them. Source ↗
110 Amsterdam wijken
Amsterdam’s boundary styles use the city’s official wijken from Gemeente Amsterdam, from the Jordaan and Grachtengordel to the Oude Pijp and IJburg, with the stadsdelen at town detail. Source ↗
Berlin’s Ortsteile
Berlin’s boundary styles use the city’s official Ortsteile as mapped in OpenStreetMap, such as Kreuzberg, Prenzlauer Berg, Neukölln and Charlottenburg, with the 12 Bezirke at town detail. Source ↗
67 Copenhagen kvarterer
Copenhagen’s boundary styles use the 67 kvarterer published by Københavns Kommune, with the 10 bydele such as Nørrebro, Østerbro and Vesterbro-Kongens Enghave at town detail. Frederiksberg appears as its own municipality. Source ↗
Stockholm’s inner-city stadsdelar
Stockholm’s boundary styles use the stadsdelar mapped in OpenStreetMap across the inner city and the west and south, including Gamla stan, Södermalm, Östermalm, Vasastaden and Kungsholmen. Outer districts are not all mapped yet. Source ↗
117 Dublin suburbs and wards
Dublin has no official neighbourhood polygons, so the studio groups the historic townlands mapped in OpenStreetMap by their nearest named suburb, giving outlines for Rathmines, Ranelagh, Ballsbridge, Drumcondra, Stoneybatter and their neighbours. Inside the canals, where there were never townlands, the historic wards such as Temple Bar, the Liberties, Wood Quay and Mountjoy carry the names. Source ↗
154 natural neighbourhoods
Edinburgh’s boundary styles use the City of Edinburgh Council’s natural neighbourhoods, drawn from how residents describe where they live: Old Town, Stockbridge, Leith, Morningside and 150 more. Source ↗
158 official neighbourhoods
Toronto’s boundary styles use the City of Toronto’s 158 official neighbourhoods, such as the Annex, Roncesvalles, Trinity-Bellwoods and the Junction Area. Their names sometimes join two local areas with a hyphen. Source ↗
77 quartiers de référence
Montréal’s boundary styles use the city’s quartiers de référence inside the 19 arrondissements, from Mile End and Vieux-Montréal to Petite-Bourgogne and Hochelaga. Arrondissements appear at town detail. Source ↗
22 local areas
Vancouver’s boundary styles use the city’s 22 official local areas, such as Kitsilano, Mount Pleasant, the West End and Strathcona, with neighbourhoods of Burnaby and New Westminster from OpenStreetMap. Source ↗
1,543 colonias
Mexico City’s boundary styles use the colonias catalogue from the city’s open-data portal across all 16 alcaldías, from Roma Norte and Condesa to Santa María la Ribera and the five sections of Polanco. The alcaldías appear at town detail. Source ↗
Sydney suburbs
Sydney’s boundary styles use the suburbs mapped in OpenStreetMap, from Surry Hills, Newtown and Bondi to Manly, with local councils at town detail. Suburbs are the names Sydneysiders actually use. Source ↗
Melbourne suburbs
Melbourne’s boundary styles use the suburbs mapped in OpenStreetMap, from Fitzroy, Carlton and Collingwood to St Kilda and Brunswick, with local councils at town detail. Source ↗
331 subzones
Singapore’s boundary styles use the URA planning subzones as mapped in OpenStreetMap, such as Chinatown, Little India, Tiong Bahru and Bugis, with the 55 planning areas at town detail. Source ↗
Typography follows the shapes.
The text-only style reshapes letter contours within the mapped areas. Other styles retain neighborhood outlines or show the street network. Each has different limits when names are long or the map is zoomed far out. Check the actual preview before saving.
Made as a print.
The current print range uses 200gsm enhanced matte paper, with unframed and wood-framed options. Production and shipping are handled through Prodigi, and Standard shipping is free in the contiguous US and DC. See sizes, prices, and delivery coverage.
The studio is open for designing and saving while the print launch is being completed. Availability is shown alongside print options. We do not provide downloadable production files.
Find your place ↗