4 Cartographic Styles and 85 Colour Palettes for Your Map

A map's styling determines how the result looks: building colours, road line thickness, whether street labels are visible. The right choice depends on the task: an analytical map requires one approach, a wall poster — something completely different.

Style and Palette Are Two Separate Choices

In the osm2cdr builder, styling comes from two independent decisions:

• Cartographic style — a set of rendering rules (QGIS QML files): layer hierarchy, line widths, pattern fills, label order. There are four styles.
• Colour palette — recolours the layers on top of the chosen style: background, roads, buildings, water, greenery. There are 85 palettes.

Any palette can be combined with any style. Blueprint on top of OSM Carto and Blueprint on top of OpenMapTiles Positron share the same colours but differ in level of detail.

4 Cartographic Styles

OSM2CDR (default) — the service's own style. All the main map elements: roads, buildings, parks, water, labels. Suits most tasks, from posters to CAD base maps.

OSM Carto (classic OpenStreetMap) — the look you know from openstreetmap.org. A good choice when the map should feel familiar to OSM users.

OpenMapTiles Positron (modern flat design) — a style for data visualisations: muted palette, minimal detail. The base map doesn't compete with your data. Maps in this style carry a link to OpenMapTiles under the CC-BY 4.0 licence.

B&W Printable (grayscale) — a grayscale-only map optimised for black-and-white printing without loss of legibility. Ideal for posters, technical documents and ink-saving printing.

85 Colour Palettes

Palettes are grouped by purpose. Below are the main groups with examples; the full list is in the builder.

Basic

Standard, Minimal, Monochrome, Contrast, Topographic, B/W print. Neutral everyday palettes, from familiar OSM colours to pure black on white.

Dark

Dark, Dark Pro, Midnight, OLED Dark, Neon, Cyberpunk, Vaporwave, Outrun, Film Noir. Light lines on a dark background — for screens, presentations and striking posters.

Artistic

Blueprint, Vintage, Watercolor, Watercolor Pro, Pencil Sketch, Ink Drawing, Chinese Ink, Copper Engraving, Ukiyo-e, Oil Painting, Line Art, Comic, Parchment, Medieval Fantasy, Gold Foil. Imitations of techniques: an engineering drawing (white lines on blue), aged paper, ink, engraving.

Monochrome

Sepia, Blue Mono, Green Mono, Burgundy Mono, Charcoal Mono, Amber Mono and more — the whole map in shades of a single colour. Handy for matching a brand colour or an interior.

Seasonal and Holiday

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter Snow, Arctic, Sunset, Christmas, Halloween, Valentine's Day.

Textures

Wood, Concrete, Marble, Canvas, Metal, Leather, Stone, Sand, Cork Board — colours matched to the material the map will be printed on or cut from.

Business and Science

Corporate, Scientific, Data Viz, Real Estate. Restrained colours that don't distract from the content.

Accessibility

High Contrast, Deuteranopia-Safe, Protanopia-Safe, Tritanopia-Safe, Large Labels. Palettes for people with low vision or colour vision deficiency: colours stay distinguishable for every type of colour blindness.

Style Comparison Table

Color Customization

With a recent update, osm2cdr supports color customization through 6 color pickers:

6 Color Parameters

1. Background — map background
2. Roads — road color (main network)
3. Buildings — building fill
4. Water — water features
5. Green — parks and green areas
6. Text — labels and markers

How to Use

1. Select a cartographic style and a base palette (e.g., Minimal)
2. Click "Customize colors"
3. Change colors via the pickers
4. Preview updates in real time
5. Export with custom colors

Example: Corporate Map

For a company with brand blue (#003087) and white: - Background: #ffffff - Roads: #003087 - Buildings: #e6ecf5 - Water: #ccd6e8 - Green: #d4e6d4 - Text: #003087

Result — an elegant monochrome map in brand colors.

Choosing a Style and Palette by Task

For Poster Printing

Style: OSM2CDR. Palettes: Minimal, Blueprint, Vintage, Ink Drawing.

Dark palettes (Neon, Dark Pro, Midnight) require a lot of ink and may look different on paper than on screen. Light palettes are more economical and predictable in print.

For Web Applications

Style: OSM Carto or OSM2CDR. Palettes: Standard, Dark Pro, OLED Dark.

Interactive maps need labels and recognizable elements.

For Analytics

Style: OpenMapTiles Positron. Palettes: Monochrome, Data Viz, Scientific.

The background map shouldn't distract from data. Muted colors allow overlaying heatmaps, markers, or isolines.

For Gifts

Palettes: Neon, Blueprint, Vintage, Watercolor, Gold Foil.

Artistic palettes create emotional impact. Choose based on the recipient: techie — Blueprint, romantic — Watercolor, gamer — Neon.

For Academic Work and B&W Printing

Style: B&W Printable. Palettes: Scientific, B/W print.

Academic publications require neutral styling without decorative elements.

For Accessibility

Palettes: High Contrast, Deuteranopia-Safe, Protanopia-Safe, Tritanopia-Safe, Large Labels.

Maps for wayfinding boards, teaching materials and websites used by people with visual impairments.

Styling and Format Compatibility

Not all styling works equally well in all formats:

For CAD formats (DXF, DWG), palettes with fills (Vintage, Watercolor) will be simplified to outlines. Minimal and Blueprint work best for CAD.

Creating Your Own Style

For advanced users, osm2cdr supports custom QML styles (QGIS format):

1. Create a style in QGIS Desktop
2. Export as a QML file
3. Send it to us — there is no self-service upload yet, we hook the file up
4. Use when exporting

This gives full control: symbology, filters, scale rules, labels — everything is configurable in QGIS.

Conclusion

4 cartographic styles define how the map is built, 85 colour palettes define its colours. Together they cover the main scenarios: from a minimalist poster to an analytics base map and palettes for people with colour vision deficiency. Customization through 6 color parameters lets you tune any palette to a specific brand or task. If the built-in styling isn't enough — send us your own QML.