OS MasterMap® Key Explained - Colour Codes and Symbols

MasterMap® Colour Key

View and download OS MasterMap® of your area here

The following table shows the RGB values for the area fills on an OS MasterMap® map.

COLOUR	HEADING	TYPE	R	G	B
	Area Fills	Building	255	220	175
	Area Fills	Structure	255	215	195
	Area Fills	Glasshouse	255	204	153
	Area Fills	Heritage	255	220	175
	Area Fills	Manmade Surface	210	210	170
	Area Fills	Multiple Surface (e.g., paved and natural environment)	255	255	204
	Area Fills	Natural Environment	220	255	190
	Area Fills	Natural Environment	204	255	204
	Area Fills	Path	204	204	204
	Area Fills	Step	210	210	170
	Area Fills	Road	215	215	215
	Area Fills	Rail	204	204	204
	Area Fills	Water - Inland Water	190	255	255
	Area Fills	Water - Foreshore	204	255	255
	Area Fills	Water - Tidal	190	255	255
	Area Fills	Unknown Fill (Traffic Islands, etc.)	210	210	170
	Area Fills	Unclassified Fill (e.g. under development at the time of capture)	255	255	255
	Area Fills	Agricultural Land	186	212	167
	Area Fills	Constructed Water	152	204	217
	Area Fills	Sloping Masonry	183	184	138
	Area Fills	Mud	245	240	225

Symbols Key

Shared symbol geometry of OS MasterMap®.

	Boulder		Culvert		Marsh
	Non-Coniferous  Tree		Manmade Landform		Scree
	Circle		Heath		Rough Grass
	Circle Fill		Coppice		Rock Fill
	Coniferous Tree		Heritage Site		Orchard
	Bench Mark		Water Point		Natural Landform
	Air Height		Triangulation Station		Multi Vegetation
	Boundary Mereing		Spot Height		Point
	Boundary Post		Bush		Cross
	Flow Arrow		Road Flow		Landform Disused

Line styles

STYLE	TYPE
	Default
	Default Dashed
	Building
	Building Overhead
	Water Bold
	Water Dashed
	Water
	Underground
	Structure Overhead
	Landform
	Standard-gauge rail
	Parish
	Electoral
	County
	Parliamentary
	District
	Closing
	Motorway
	Primary Route
	A Road
	B Road
	Minor Road
	Local Street
	Private Road Public Access
	Private Road Restricted Access
	Pedestrianised Street
	Alley
	Ferry
	Carriageway

This blog post describes the default data display styles in OS MasterMap®. It defines the colours, fonts, symbols, and line styles that are used in the visual presentation and printing of OS MasterMap® provided by MapServe® as an official partner of the Ordnance Survey. The Ordnance Survey has selected colours that are consistent throughout the Internet. In the colour palette, the specific colours used are described by both their RGB and decimal values.

Symbols are used in two ways:

1. Point symbols are used to indicate the location of certain features inside data, such as a phone call box or bollard. The symbol reflects the feature's location and kind. They are applied to the visual representation by translating them to the position of the feature they represent and rotating them by a specified amount if the orientation attribute is provided.
2. Fill symbols are used to indicate some aspect of a polygon feature and are dispersed as a pattern fill throughout the polygon. For example, the symbol might reflect topographic surface information such as plant kind. Because of the overheads associated with using pattern fills in many modern software systems, it is observed that pattern fills are not widely used. They are optional depending on the user's needs and system capabilities.

Line styles are used to help users differentiate between different sorts of linear features. For example, some variations can be created to highlight:

• Obstructing detail.
• Non-obstructing detail.
• Underground detail.
• Overhead detail.
• Building outlines.
• Water limits and linear features.
• Landform detail.
• Narrow-gauge railways.
• Statutory boundaries.
• Polygon-closing features.

The Font used is : Arial®: 

For more information about OS MasterMap® visit our blog post. 

All information above is provided and it is a copyright of the ©Ordnance Survey.