Color and shape meaning in OpenStreetMap.

General talk
1

Hi everyone,

May be simple question but I had a hard time to find answer after searches on OSM site and forum.
Can someone explain or point me out to a consistent description of shapes and color meaning in OSM?
I’m at Stockton, CA on the map. There are green, orange, red, blue roads. There are some huge reddish areas at some locations.
Some areas are dark green, some bright green (I assume parks). Little brown triangles (a local high point?).
Grey shaded areas around some local roads and absent around others. Dotted lines, are these trials?
Where can I find the legend for everything I see?

Thanks,
Dmitry.

2

Map features page is worth reading http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Map_Features. However, it is not autamatically updated when rendering rules change and rendering sample may not be exactly the same that is on the map right now.

3

That depends on the map you’re referring to. Mapnik or Osmarender? In any case just click on “Map key” (left side, grey box) to see the information.

Trunk road
Secondary road
Primary road
Motorway
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:highway

Indutrial area (http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:landuse)
or perhaps just buildings (http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:building)

forrest (landuse), park or natural=wood
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:natural

Peak
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:natural%3Dpeak

landuse=residential (http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:landuse)

Could be highway=track (brown) or a tunnel (color depends on the type of way).

See top of this post.

Another information might be the data-layer. Zoom to the desired object, klick on the blue plus-icon on the top right corner an tick “Data”.

4

Thank you JRA, PHerison.

Very helpful. I was browsing map on http://www.openstreetmap.org/, not sure if it’s Mapnik or Osmarender though.

5

Dmitry69,

the default is Mapnik. If you want to be certain, click the “+” sign at the right hand top corner. The map with the dot in the radio button in front is the map you are looking at. You can switch by selecting an other radio button.

Hugo