- What is the Style Editor?
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The Style Editor is a web-based online tool for creating your very own style of a map using verified
OpenStreetMap data. It allows you to customize the appearance of the map, to show objects such as
roads and buildings in different colors or emphasize different aspects of the data. Create a map that's
just right for you, it takes only a few minutes! Best of all you don't have to start from scratch, because
there are already pre-defined professional styles in the Style Gallery that you can start from. After
you create your customized map style, you can embed it on your website or in your web or mobile
application. CloudMade will host the tile images and keep them up-to-date for you.
- How do I get started?
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Login into the Style Editor by opening maps.cloudmade.com and clicking on the Edit Map Style tab
in the upper left. If you don't already have a CloudMade account, then take a minute to create one so
you’ll be able to save your changes. Take a look at some of the styles already available by mousing
over the Style Gallery in the panel on the left. You can see how the map styles looks in the preview
dialog. Styles are divided into four categories: CloudMade Styles, Community Styles, My Styles, and My
Favorites. You may need to wait a few moments for the map styles to load.
- What is special about the base styles?
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CloudMade's base styles provide a range of interesting variations of map styling designed by
professional cartographers. You can use them as they are, but if you want to work with the style
editor to create your own map style, you must always start by 'cloning' one of the existing base or
community styles. Various aspects of the style cannot be changed within the Style Editor, and can only
be controlled by selecting a base style. This includes POI icons, text positioning and road widths.
- I've cloned a style. Now how do I make changes?
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Simply select a object you wish to change, from the panel on the left (e.g. Motorway), and then
make changes to color or visibility options in the floating color panel on the upper right.
- How do I see the new color choice in the map display?
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Click the 'Refresh the map with your changes' button, and wait a few moments while the map is
re-rendered for you. Bear in mind all changes in Style Editor require you to Refresh the map to see
them on the screen. Tip: make multiple changes before selecting Refresh to save re-rendering time.
- What is happening when I click on the map?
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This is another way of selecting an object type to edit. You can simply click on the objects within the
map, to select that type of feature to edit. It can pick up on most different ways, areas and POIs,
however if you get a "Can't recognize. Try again" message then Style Editor has failed to identify an
editable feature type at the point you clicked. This will happen if you click on the background (or try
to click on a feature but miss and click the background) You can edit style colors for the background
'land' and also for 'ocean' water areas and 'cities' areas, but only by selecting the left-hand side list. You
cannot click the background to select it. There are also a number of feature types which are noneditable
within the style editor. Clicking these will always give you a "Can't recognize" message.
- What does the "hide all non-editable features" tickbox do on the bottom status panel?
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There are various feature types which cannot have style changes made to them. If you don't like the
default styles for these, then you must either hide them all using this tickbox, or work from a different
base style. Press Refresh to see changes.
- Can I turn place names or administrative boundaries on and off?
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The base style controls the display of these objects. For different styles of administrative boundaries
you must work from a different base style.
- Can I control "border" colors (lines along the edges of roads)?
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You have the option to remove borders, but the color is automatically chosen to be a darker shade
of the main color selection for that object. Likewise the color applied to tunnels will automatically be
set to a lighter shade of the main color.
- What is the "no-names" base style?
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The no-names base style will highlight unnamed roads and some unnamed POIs. Currently it is
not possible to choose what unnamed items are highlighted within the style editor. This is a special
treatment of tags (or lack of tags) designed to provide a useful display for tracking mapping progress
of OpenStreetMap areas.
