Interface Overview¶
GeoLibre opens to a single workspace that is the same on desktop and in the browser. This page is a tour of that workspace so the rest of the User Guide can refer to its parts by name.
The top toolbar¶
The toolbar across the top of the window groups every action into seven menus:
| Menu | What it does |
|---|---|
| Project | Create, open, save, share, and print projects. See Projects. |
| Add Data | Add layers from files, web services, cloud formats, 3D data, and databases. See Adding Data. |
| Processing | Run vector, raster, conversion, Whitebox, and SQL tools. See Processing Tools and SQL Workspace. |
| Controls | Toggle map controls and component panels (Measure, Bookmark, Minimap, and more). See Map Controls & Tools. |
| Plugins | Activate built-in plugins and set their on-map position. See Plugins & Marketplace. |
| Settings | Map preferences, layout, environment variables, project settings, and Manage Plugins. See Settings & Preferences. |
| Help | Diagnostics, feedback, update checks, and the About dialog. |
On the right side of the toolbar are the light/dark theme toggle and the editable project name.
Toolbar labels
On narrow windows the toolbar collapses to icon-only buttons. You can also force icon-only buttons from Settings → Layout, or with the toolbar=icons URL parameter. See Embedding & Sharing.
The three panels¶
GeoLibre has three dockable panels around the map:
- Layers panel (left): the layer stack, including the basemap. Toggle visibility, change opacity, reorder layers, zoom to a layer, identify features, and open per-layer actions. See Managing Layers.
- Style panel (right): the styling controls for the selected layer, including data-driven styling for vector layers and image adjustments for rasters. See Styling Layers.
- Attribute table (bottom): the attributes of the selected vector or DuckDB layer. Expand it from the status bar. See Attribute Table.
Each panel can be shown or hidden from Settings → Layout, and panels auto-hide on small screens. You can resize the Layers and Style panels by dragging their inner edge.
The map¶
The map fills the center of the workspace. It uses MapLibre GL JS for vector and raster rendering, with deck.gl for point clouds, 3D tiles, and other advanced overlays. Pan by dragging, zoom with the scroll wheel or the on-map zoom buttons, rotate by holding the right mouse button and dragging, tilt by holding Ctrl/Cmd and dragging, and reset north with the compass button.
On-map controls such as zoom, globe, fullscreen, and the Layer Control appear in the corners. Which controls are shown is set from the Controls menu.
The status bar¶
The status bar along the bottom shows the live cursor coordinates, zoom, bearing, and pitch, a button to expand the Attribute Table, and a Diagnostics button (also under Help) that surfaces any runtime errors.
Theme¶
Use the sun/moon button on the toolbar to switch between light and dark themes. The theme also follows your operating system preference by default, and you can set it for embeds with the theme=dark or theme=light URL parameter. See Embedding & Sharing.
Desktop and browser¶
The same UI runs as an installed desktop app (built with Tauri) and as a web app in the browser. The browser build covers most workflows, but features that need the local filesystem (file dialogs, local MBTiles and raster reads, project save/open, and the Python sidecar tools) require the desktop app. Each affected page notes these differences. See Getting Started for installation and Downloads for installers.