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Vector Maps (Map Styles)

This article was last updated in August 2024.

Overview​

Vector maps are intended to be used as the default map data source for OsmAnd, so you need to download them to your device. Vector maps support a huge range of map styles for different activities like cycling, hiking, riding by car or snowmobile, and other.

Each map style can be customized to highlight or hide specific objects, as well as switch day and night mode. Map vector data could be augmented by vector data and displayed with default Map style, such as Contour line information. You can create your own OsmAnd map style to demonstrate the required information.

Use cases​

Customizable map styles are one of the main advantages of OsmAnd. You can customize the map display to suit yourself and your hobbies, adjust the display or hiding of certain map objects, the sizes and colors of these objects, and change the scale of the display of certain objects.

Default Map Styles​

OsmAnd offers you many map styles and data layers that fit by default. Let's take a look at the main ones for day and night modes.

  1. Android. Menu → Configure map → Map rendering → Map style

  2. iOS. Menu → Map type → Configure map → Styles for offline maps

OsmAnd​

OsmAnd map style

OsmAnd style is the default style of map rendering, general-purpose style. It offers details about the city such as streets, buildings, transport stops, etc. Simplified rendering to have cleaner maps in the populated cities. Key features: routes, surface quality, access restrictions, road shields, paths rendering according to SAC scale, whitewater sports features, topography features like contour lines.

Touring View​

Touring view map style

Touring style with high contrast and maximum detail. Includes all the options of the default OsmAnd style while displaying as much detail as possible, in particular roads, paths, and other ways of traveling. Clear distinction of road types in a touring atlas. Suitable for day, night, and outdoor use.

UniRS and LightRS​

Modification of the default style to increase contrast of pedestrian and bicycle roads. Uses legacy Mapnik colors.

UniRS and LightRS styles are author styles that render the basic map information but in different colour schemes.

  • UniRS style. Modification of the default style to increase contrast of pedestrian and bicycle roads. Uses legacy Mapnik colors.

UniRS map style

  • LightRS style. Simple driving style. Gentle night mode, contrasting orange styled roads, dims secondary map objects, topography features like contour lines.

LightRS map style

Nautical​

For nautical navigation. Features buoys, lighthouses, riverways, sea lanes and marks, harbors, seamark services, and depth contours. Read more about Nautical maps.

Nautical map style

Winter and Ski​

Winter & Ski map style

For skiing sports. Describes the pistes, elevators, cross-country trails, and obscures secondary map objects. Winter and ski style is designed to help you with winter sports navigation: you can see the ski slopes and other details such as the difficulty of the slopes and elevator markers. Key features: the convenient display of slopes, elevators, and other skiing features. Less of the distracting secondary objects of the map. Read more about Ski maps.

Topo​

Topo map style

For hiking, trekking, and nature cycling. Readable outdoors. Contrasting roads and natural objects, different route types, advanced contour line options, extra details. Adjusting Surface integrity distinguishes road quality.

OSM-carto​

OSM-carto map style

This style simulates default web OpenStreetMap style. Web source code is available at Github, OsmAnd code at Github.

Desert​

Desert map style

For deserts and other sparsely populated areas. More detailed.

Offroad​

Offroad map style

For off-road driving based on \'Topo\' style and for use with green satellite images as an underlay. Reduced main road thickness, increased thickness of tracks, paths, bicycle and other routes.

Snowmobile​

Snowmobile map style

For snowmobile driving with dedicated roads and tracks.

Map Legend​

Map legend is a visual explanation of the symbols used on the map. It typically includes a sample of each symbol (point, line, or area), and a short description of what the symbol means. For example, a short segment of a blue sinuous line may be labeled 'rivers'. Map legend of OsmAnd maps you can find here.

Map Fonts (Android)​

Menu → Maps & Resources → Other → Map fonts

Map fonts Android version Map fonts version

Download map fonts for simplified/traditional Chinese, Japanese, and Korean maps.

When writing local names in simplified/traditional Chinese, Japanese, and Korean (Map language), incorrect hieroglyphs or even squares may appear. This happens when the device does not support the required fonts.

Some issues with these incorrect fonts are described on our GitHub page: 3911, 8187, 9400, 10862. To solve this problem, the Android version of OsmAnd has the option to download the required fonts.

* Contour Lines​

Android Menu → Configure map → Topography

Contour lines map style

Contour lines are represented as vector maps that are displayed as elevation lines. You need to enable the Topography plugin, download the data for your region and configure the display. Feature is not enabled by default and needs to be purchased first.

Contour lines are available for all map styles and modes and could be configured via the Contour lines menu. More information here.

* Nautical Depth​

Menu → Configure map → Show → Nautical depth

nautical_depth_width_and nautical_depth_color_and

Nautical depth contour lines allow you to define areas of equal depth. They are designed to visualize changes in topography below the water surface. Nautical depth is available for all map styles and modes and can be adjusted whether or not the Nautical map view plugin is enabled.

More information about Nautical map view here.

Show Borders​

Menu → Configure map → Show borders of downloaded maps

show-borders-andr

This feature gives you the ability to switch on or off the display of the vector layer of previously downloaded maps from the list of available ones. Its general purpose is to hide areas and borders of downloaded maps when viewing the main map, especially if you have a lot of them.

The borders of the downloaded maps start displaying at zoom level 7 and are no longer displayed at zoom level 3.

tip

Downloaded maps are displayed in Green in the Android and iOS versions of OsmAnd when the Show borders of downloaded maps feature is switched on. Archived maps in the Android system and those maps that can be updated in iOS are displayed in Orange.

Configure Map Style​

Map Mode​

Menu → Configure map → Map rendering → Map mode

Map Mode

The map is displayed in light or dark theme according to the mode selected from the list of suggested ones. By default and for all new users, the map style corresponds to the theme selected in the system settings of your device.

DayAlways displays the map in a light theme, ideal for daytime visibility.
NightAlways displays the map in a dark theme, suited for nighttime or low-light conditions.
Sunrise / SunsetAutomatically switches between day and night themes based on local sunrise and sunset times. Both times for your region are shown in the description.
Light sensor (Android only)Uses the device's light sensor to switch between light and dark themes based on ambient light levels.
App theme (Android only)The map display matches the overall theme of the app. Day mode for light theme and night mode for dark theme.

Details​

Menu → Configure map → Map rendering → Details

Parameters and Description
More details. Showing polygons, trails, points, signs at low zooms on the map. It means you can see more details on your map at low zooms. Note: rendering on your device may be not fast.
Map parameter - More detailed
Show road surface. Showing type of surface of roads. Colour of the road helps you to understand what is the surface of the road is: asphalt, grass or sand etc. Look at Map legend.
Map parameter - Road surface
Show road quality. Indicates the quality of the road. Indicates the smoothness (slope) of the road. How smooth your roads are: good, bad, possibly terrible, etc. Look at the Map legend to determine the smoothness of your road.
Map parameter - Road smoothness
Show access and toll restrictions. Showing access of roads: private or permissive, or only for emergency, or maybe toll road. Look at Map legend to find your road access.
Map parameter - Road access
Show Low Emission Zones. Showing green board and labels "LEZ" for Low Emission Zones in cities. A Low-Emission Zone (LEZ) is a geographically defined area which seeks to restrict or deter access by certain polluting vehicles with the aim of improving the air quality. It will help you not receive penalties in the green city center.
Map parameter - Low emission zones
Color-code buildings by type. Coloring buildings and places have special colours for each category: regular buildings, industrial, commercial, etc. Look at Map legend to find your colour for the building.
Map parameter - Coloured buildings
Street lighting. Showing street lighting on the map. On the map, you can see illuminated and not illuminated streets, underground illuminated ways and temporarily illuminated streets. Look at Map legend.
Map parameter - Street lightning
OSM mapper assistant. Special setting for mappers. Showed refs, remarks, comments on the map from other mappers.
Map parameter - Map assistant
Nautical depth contours. Showing nautical depth contours on seas. You need to have a nautical plugin and download Nautical maps.
Map parameter - Depth contours
Nature reserve. Showing green board and labels "NR" for Nature reserve territory. A nature reserve is a protected area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest.
Map parameter - Nature reserve

Routes​

Menu → Configure map → Routes

Map routes - cycle routes Map routes - hiking network

A route is a path that is predetermined and needs to be followed to reach a specific destination. A route can be optimized for different types of travel, such as cycling, hiking, running, public transport, and others. You can read more about routes and their types in the Routes article.

Transport​

Menu → Configure map → Show → Transport

When navigating through cities, you need a more contrasting view of public transportation and stops. You can tap a public transportation stop and select one of the routes or stops from the list. Train routes are also displayed in this setting.

  • Transport stops. Showing public transport stops.
    Map transport stops

  • Bus, trolleybus, shuttle routes. Showing bus, trolleybus, shuttle routes.
    Map transport bus

  • Tram and train routes. Showing tram and train routes.
    Map transport tram

  • Subway routes. Showing underground routes.
    Map transport subway

Hide​

Menu → Configure map → Map rendering → Hide

Sometimes we need to hide objects on the map for better vision. For example to hide water while using the Underlay layer of Satellite online maps.

  • Boundaries. Hide regional boundaries inside of countries, but state boundaries are visible.
  • Polygons. Hide all polygons of natural objects, special function for Underlay/Overlay layer.
  • Buildings. Hide all polygons of buildings.
  • Hide water. Hide all polygons of water (seas, lakes, reservoirs etc.)
  • House numbers. Hide house numbers on the map.
  • Proposed objects. Hide proposed objects, those objects which are planned for a building, but only have a project (projected roads, crossroads, buildings etc).
  • POI icons. Hide POI icons from the map. But labels of these POI will be on the map.
  • POI labels. Hide POI labels from the map. But icons of these POI will be on the map.
  • Underground objects. Hide all underground objects, like tunnels, passes, floors, etc. Special for clearing maps on cities from non useful objects.
  • Overground objects. Hide all overground objects. Special for seeing only underground objects like tunnels, passes, etc.

Road style​

Menu → Configure map → Map rendering → Road style

Special settings for roads, where you can change the colors to match the road atlas or add high-contrast roads or bold outlines for roads.

Parameters and Description
Default. Default style for highways. Look at Map legend.
Map road style default
German road atlas. Style of German road atlas.
Map road style german
American road atlas. Style of American road atlas.
Map road style american
High contrast roads. The high contrast of roads.
Map road style high contrast
Pale. Less contrasting colors of roads.
Map road style bold outline
Bold outline. Bold outline for roads.
Map road style bold outline

Text Size​

Menu → Configure map → Map rendering → Text size

  • 100%
    Map text size 100%

  • 200%
    Map text size 200%

Map Magnifier​

This setting helps to change the magnifier of the map. It is applicable for raster & vector maps. For raster maps it applies a magnifying effect, so text labels look bigger or smaller. For vector maps it provides a more or less detailed map, if you put it to a low value it will produce a noisy / slow map.

You can choose this setting by long tap to "+" or "-" button on the screen or:
Android Menu → Configure map → Map rendering → Map magnifier

  • 75%
    Map magnifier 75%

  • 200%
    Map magnifier 200%

Map Language​

The Map language option is used to configure the spelling of names on the OsmAnd map for zoom levels 7-20, inclusive. For zoom levels 2-6, the names are displayed in the language set for OsmAnd in the system settings menu (see Display language article).

If the names on the map are not translated into the desired language by the OSM community, you can use transliterated names: Use latin name if missing (Android) or Transliterate names (iOS) switcher.

Menu → Configure map → Map rendering → Map language

  • Local names
    Map language local names

  • Ukranian names
    Map language ukranian

  • Show local names
    Map language local

  • Transliterate names
    Map language transliterate

Custom Map Style​

If you have personal or 3rd party custom map style created according to Specification, you can install it on your device in the following ways:

  • Copy the .render.xml file to the devices and open it with OsmAnd.
  • Rendering styles can be exported and imported using Standard import / export dialogs. So if you create an example .osf package, it will work as a plugin that you can share with other people.
  • You can then choose a map style from the menu.

This article was last updated in August 2024