Simple map making

Hi,

I’m working a on a project which should involve a very simple map just like the one used on the openlayers examples (labs.metacarta.com). Roads and more than the absolute essentials when it comes to details would just hinder the usefulness of this map which is why I don’t just follow the examples provided in the wiki.

Instead of just using somebody elses map I’d like to use my own webserver to serve the tiles. Now, the OSM wiki is about the best source telling one how to do things so far. Thank you very much for providing all this valuable information and of course these data.

I’m not an expert on many of the tools and data sources. Yet I assume its possible to alter the process of tile generation through mapnik and for example mod_tile so that it does not need the actual OSM data about all the roads and places in the world. All I’d really need would be a rather simple map of the world, its countries, stuff like that. All the other things would have to be added dynamically using a JavaScript Library like OpenLayers or alike.

I’d be very helpful for pointers in the right direction, corrections in my way of thinking about this and anything else that could help me move this forward. Thank you very much in advance.

cu
Roman

Have you already seen http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tirex ?

Is that in the direction you are looking for?