Tiled packaging of vector image data

A computer-implemented method of handling image data, comprising acts of:

• accessing a server datastore for an image in the form of vector-object data comprising vector objects having extent;
• partitioning the vector-object data into vector tiles having tile boundaries;
• transmitting the vector tiles to a client;
• intersecting the vector objects within the tile boundaries so that each vector tile contains only vector data that belongs within the extents of the vector objects;
• rasterizing the vector tiles into bitmap data on the client;
• and
• utilizing a processor that executes instructions stored in memory to perform at least one of the acts of accessing, partitioning, transmitting, intersecting, or rasterizing.

A computer-implemented system, comprising:

• computer-implemented means for accessing a server datastore of vector-object data comprising vector objects having extent;
• computer-implemented means for partitioning the vector-object data into tiles having tile boundaries;
• computer-implemented means for intersecting the vector objects within the tile boundaries so that each vector tile contains only vector data that belongs within the extents of the vector objects;
• computer-implemented means for sending the tiles to a client;
• computer-implemented means for rasterizing the tiles into bitmap data on the client;
• computer-implemented means for presenting the bitmap data via a client browser application;
• and
• a computer-readable medium on which resides at least one of the computer-implemented means for accessing, partitioning, intersecting, sending, rasterizing, or presenting.