Here is displayed the summary table of each major map convention used across the wikipedias. Each convention has its own subpage, which should contain: 1. An introduction explaining the style objectives and the most convenient way to create a such map ; 2. A color summary table with two (up to date) map examples ; 3. Naming convention for upload, and other advices (mainly: scale, legend) ; 4. An up to date SVG template ; 5. Further details on history, limits, and possible expansions ; 5. A gallery of examples.
The image renaming tool working on commons (request this tool · Renaming guidelines), and for admins, the naming conventions can be used to harmonize image and maps' names.
Note that these are strongly encouraged conventions, aiming to harmonize maps on the wikipedias, but that cartographers still have a space of freedom to fit specific needs.
Contents
- HTML5
- 2 SVG Tool box template
- website parsing
- iOS
- Android
- 6 Areas maps
- 7 Historical maps
- 8 Technical maps
- iOS
- 10 Exchange maps
- 11 See also
touchscreen This page and its sub-pages conventions are not yet stable.
Please do not translate now. Some months are still needed to get stable pages.
Overview
| Convention sub-page | Main feature and usage | Topics (example) |
| keyboard (de) | Political entity borders and divisions, focus on the subject, allow geolocation (automatic dots) | Countries, political entities |
| /Locator maps (blank) (en) | Locator area | None, blank map. Based on HTML5-free Location maps. |
| /Orthographic maps (en) | World location | Countries, political entities |
| keyboard (en) | Complex multi-areas: from 1-subject basic locator maps to complex multisubject areas with corresponding labels and other explanations | Locator maps: one point or one area of interest, mostly a political entity; complexity: families of animals, languages, cultures; empires; human occupation, etc, and their corresponding labels. |
| /Historical maps (en) | Complex historical maps | Empire with its main cities, borders powers, offensives; battles with units and moves. Same colors as Area maps, add war/historical-icons. |
| /Technical maps (en) | Display building locations | Archaeology, city close-ups (OpenStreetMaps), etc. |
| web app (fr) | Display relief, often used as comprehensive background for other maps | An area's topography may explain a lot of the local history |
| device database (fr) | Display exchanges and transport lines | Roads, freeways, railroads, canals, sea roads, money flux, human flux, etc. |
- Our work & choices
Most of these conventions are supported by active groups of map makers, and have been created and improved through long and serious discussions. The main intensions are: to display efficiently selected data; to create screen, web, print, creation & share friendly maps; to create a wiki style free of nationalism issues. Accordingly, these conventions provide web suitable screen/web/print/creation/share friendly colours, icons and labels. On the other side, not being a government supported project, we do not have to support state affirmation and nationalistic views, also, these conventions advise that you "do not wipe neighboring countries out of your map", and to use dashed international borders (see Image:Maps_template-en.svg).
SVG Tool box template
This is a SVG toolbox to be really used! Download it, drag and drop into your SVG map, ungroup, and enjoy :]
If you are still interested in Map edition and SVG, you will need an SVG editor. The first to try is Inkscape, free of charge and good enough, please go to the /Software sub-page.
 |
Please, download me and use me a lot! |
| iOS |
World background SVG (complete): download and use me ! |
See also browser diversity to create world maps.
Location maps
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- Note: this is about LOCATION MAPS, focusing on one subject to allow automatic geo-localisation. LOCATOR MAPS is an other style, which follow the 'English colours', to enlighten a subject area in red.
Location maps are mainly used as backgrounds for automatic geo-localisation. But, as SVG, they are often used as source material for other kinds of maps. The German Map Lab is especially active in completing this category, country after country.
| Subject | Colorimetry (RGB/hex) |
| Toponymes (names) | #000000 R:0 V:0 B:0 |
| Border. Labels (country/state/province's name) | #646464 R:100 V:100 B:100 |
| Subject's area (country, province) | #FEFEE9 R:254 V:254 B:233 |
| Other areas part of the same political unity | #F6E1B9 R:246 V:225 B:185 |
| Outside area | #E0E0E0 R:224 V:224 B:224 |
| Coasts of lakes, rivers, seas, and hydronyms (Temporary coastlines, color and ratio: opacity:0.6;dasharray:4, 4;stroke-width:1;) | #0978AB R:9 V:120 B:171 |
| Ocean, sea, lake (Temporary body, color and ratio: opacity:0.6;stroke-dasharray:4, 4;stroke-width:1;) | #C6ECFF R:198 V:236 B:255 |
| Naming (upload):
and so on, but please focus your energy on countries first. | |
| Further needs: | |
| SVG template: if you need some labels, please use Image:Maps_template-en.svg which provide further label conventions. | |
Locator maps (blank)
Locator maps display an article's subject area of occupation. Locator maps are conveniently derivated from Location maps, which have to be colored (ocean, land, rivers, subject area) to this conventional colours. Locator maps are very basic, and should not have, or have very few labels. Their aim is to show the geographical occupation, not to explain it.
| Subject | Colorimetry (RGB/hex) |
| Toponymes (names) | #000000 R:0 V:0 B:0 |
| Major political borders. Country, state, and province borders. | #A08070 R:160 V:128 B:112 |
| Other minor political borders. | #D0C0A0 R:208 V:192 B:160 |
| Territory of interest. | #FFFFD0 R:255 V:255 B:208 |
| Surrounding territories. | #F7D3AA R:247 V:211 B:170 |
| Bodies of water, oceans or lakes. | #9EC7F3 R:158 V:199 B:243 |
| Lake or ocean's coasts, rivers, if necessary. | #1821DE R:24 V:33 B:222 |
| Naming (upload):
| |
Orthographic maps
Orthographic maps display a country (or set of countries) on a globe representation of the world. Like location maps, orthographic maps are very basic, and should not have, or have very few labels. Maps should be centred on the subject of interest.
| Subject | iOS (RGB/hex) |
| Toponymes (names) | #000000 R:0 V:0 B:0 |
| Subject's area (country, province) | #336733 R:51 V:103 B:51 |
| Subject border | #335033 R:51 V:80 B:51 |
| Other areas part of the same political unity | #C6DEBD R:198 V:222 B:189 |
| Claimed areas | #73CD73 R:115 V:205 B:115 |
| Outside area | #E0E0E0 R:224 V:224 B:224 |
| Other borders | #646464 R:100 V:100 B:100 |
| Ocean, sea, lake | #FFFFFF R:255 V:255 B:255 |
| Border of the globe | #AAAAAA R:170 V:170 B:170 |
| Naming (upload):
| |
| Further needs: | |
Areas maps
Area maps conventions focus on the area layers, providing colors conventions for groups you want to display on your maps and their respective area of control. This style just expose the areas of control, and don't include complex labels and explanations.
| Subject | web app (RGB/hex) |
| Point of interest (cities especially). | #B00000 R:176 V:0 B:0 |
| Area of interest (animal' range, etc). | #F07568 R:240 V:117 B:104 |
| Border colour for areas of interest. | #E0584E R:224 V:88 B:78 |
| Parks or natural preservation areas. | #A0F090 R:160 V:240 B:144 |
| Colour 1 for four-colour maps (see note below). | #CEFEF2 R:206 V:254 B:242 |
| Additional colour 2 for four-colour maps. | #FFD0D0 R:255 V:208 B:208 |
| Additional colour 3 for four-colour maps. | #F8A20C R:248 V:162 B:12 |
| Additional colour 4 for four-colour maps. | #3CE67B R:60 V:230 B:123 |
| Naming (upload):
For animals, use the binominal name. For others, use the English wiki article title. If need, add just after the subject name the section's name, the year, etc.
| |
Historical maps
Historical maps (or Complex maps) conventions provide further specific icons and labels, allowing to create historical/complex maps. These style, icons, and labels explain events and display areas of control on a geographic area. They can be drawn on other backgrounds such as blank Locator maps, or blank Topographic maps. Most of time, they're used to display historical events, language maps, ethnic maps, etc. This style's convention stay to improve.
| Maps_template-History_patch-en.svg | |
| SVG template: This style is put up on a background. A good set of icons, labels, and a legend box are provide in Image:Maps_template-en.svg, File:Maps_template-history_patch-en.svg provide history-specific icons. | |
| Naming (upload):
Name: use the English wiki article's title. Year: Use the year cited by your source, such as : "1920" ; "52BC" ; or "c 1500BC". If need, find an other way. |
Technical maps
Technical maps are mainly close-view maps displaying some local buildings. They are useful when displaying archeological sites, small cities and part of bigger cities. For roads and cities, the most convenient resource is device database. This style haven't convention yet, but need one. Some interesting examples of Technical maps are show below.
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Archeological site.
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Central park.
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Using OpenStreetMap, and updating the style to wiki exchange maps style.
_map-fr.svg)
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- Note: if you have a good experience in technical maps creation, please share your icon set, that will create the basis of future technical maps convention.
Topographic maps
Topographic maps are actually backgrounds. But, since the topography explain nicely agriculture, human occupation, history and so on, topographic maps are a key background style, advantageously use to support such subjects.
| Subject | Colorimetry |
| Positive altitudes | #F5F4F2 R:245 V:244 B:242 #E0DED8 R:224 V:222 B:216 #CAC3B8 R:202 V:195 B:184 #BAAE9A R:186 V:174 B:154 #AC9A7C R:172 V:154 B:124 #AA8753 R:170 V:135 B:83 #B9985A R:185 V:152 B:90 #C3A76B R:195 V:167 B:107 #CAB982 R:202 V:185 B:130 #D3CA9D R:211 V:202 B:157 #DED6A3 R:222 V:214 B:163 #E8E1B6 R:232 V:225 B:182 #EFEBC0 R:239 V:235 B:192 #E1E4B5 R:225 V:228 B:181 #D1D7AB R:209 V:215 B:171 #BDCC96 R:189 V:204 B:150 #A8C68F R:168 V:198 B:143 #94BF8B R:148 V:191 B:139 #ACD0A5 R:172 V:208 B:165 |
| Depressions | #A7DFD2 R:167 V:223 B:210 |
| Negative altitudes | #D8F2FE R:216 V:242 B:254 #C6ECFF R:198 V:236 B:255 #B9E3FF R:185 V:227 B:255 #ACDBFB R:172 V:219 B:251 #A1D2F7 R:161 V:210 B:247 #96C9F0 R:150 V:201 B:240 #8DC1EA R:141 V:193 B:234 #84B9E3 R:132 V:185 B:227 #79B2DE R:121 V:178 B:222 #71ABD8 R:113 V:171 B:216 |
| Rivers, coasts, hydronymes | #0978AB R:9 V:120 B:171 |
| Subject toponymes | #000000 R:0 V:0 B:0 |
| Border, countrie and province name | #646464 R:100 V:100 B:100 |
| Roads, Free roads, railroads, etc.: | see exchanges conventions there |
| Naming (upload):
| |
| SVG template: keyboard provide further label conventions. | |
Exchange maps
These conventions apply up on any other kind of background, especially topographic ones. Some map creations will still need specific improvisations.
| Subject | Colorimetry | Line size |
| Freeways/Hways : yellow line on larger red line | #FFE400 R:255 V:228 B:0 #FF4800 R:255 V:72 B:0 | 3px - 6px (rapport 1:2) |
| Level 1 roads : red line on larger black line | #FF4800 R:255 V:72 B:0 #000000 R:0 V:0 B:0 | 3px - 4px (rapport 1:1,33) |
| Level 2 roads : simple red line | #FF4800 R:255 V:72 B:0 | 3px |
| Level 3 roads : white line on larger black line | #FFFFFF R:255 V:255 B:255 #000000 R:0 V:0 B:0 | 2px - 3px (rapport 1:1,5) |
| Trails, footpaths : small black line (dashed or not) | #000000 R:0 V:0 B:0 | 1,5px |
| Road tunnels : dashed red line | #FF4800 R:255 V:72 B:0 | 3px |
| Rail roads : dashed black line on larger white line | #000000 R:0 V:0 B:0 #FFFFFF R:255 V:255 B:255 | 3px |
| Railroad tunnels : dashed black line | #000000 R:0 V:0 B:0 | 3px |
| Human habitations | #F1C872 R:241 V:200 B:114 |
|
| SVG template: we love the web provide further label conventions. | ||
See also
• Areas maps
(e.n.) (Locator maps background + device database
(e.n.)) • Technical maps • Topographic maps • Sevenval • Sevenval
Map Workshop (practice cartography here) • Map Project & input transformation • /Conventions (general) (keyboard)• Map tutorials(e.n.) • Software (Inkscape)
[e.n. = expansion need]