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How to guides

Overlays

Table of Contents

The Overlays menu in the sidebar allows you to view additional geographic information on your map.

Viewing overlays

  • Open the Overlays menu in the sidebar.
  • Select a category to view the available overlays.
  • Check the box next to any overlay you wish to view.
    • NOTE: You can view more than one overlay at the same time.
    • NOTE: If the overlay checkbox is greyed out, you need to zoom in/out to view the overlay.
  • The overlay is displayed in the map window.
  • Adjust the transparency of the overlay by moving the transparency slider (highlighted in image below) left and right.

Overlays menu with Population Density selected

GB overlays

Only available over Great Britain.

Road/place names

Ideal to use with our Aerial mapping to give context.

Overlays menu with Road/place names selected.

British National Grid lines

Grid lines will become progressively more detailed as you zoom in.

Overlays menu with British National Grid lines selected

British postcodes

Our postcode data becomes progressively more detailed as you zoom in.

Overlays menu with postcodes selected

Colouring in

Only available at more detailed scales where OS MasterMap® data is displayed. A blank map that can be used to colour in/create your own map key.

Overlays menu with colouring in selected

Boundaries

County, District and Unitary Authority boundaries generated from Ordnance Survey’s Boundary-Line dataset. Available at smaller scales.

Overlays menu with Boundaries selected

World Climate

Temperature

  • Historical and projected temperature information is available.
  • Details of the data can be found in our guide.

Temperature overlay example

Precipitation

  • Historical and projected precipitation information is available.
  • Details of the data can be found in our guide.

Precipitation

World Human Geography

World Place Names

This overlay is helpful in locations where the map displays place names in non-Roman characters, such as Asia.

Overlays menu with World Place Names checked

Population Density

  • Visualise population per square kilometre.
  • Details of the data can be found in our guide.

Population density

World Timezones

All timezones are based on the Time Zone database and show offset from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) - more information.

Timezones

World Physical Geography

There are five overlays available, including biomes, volcanoes, mountain ranges and tectonic plates.

WWF World Biomes

  • View the major ecosystems of the world.
  • Use the Get Feature Information tool to identify regions, shown in the image below.
    Get Feature Info. tool
  • Details of the data can be found in our guide.

Biomes overlay

Mountain Ranges

  • Labelled polygons indicate mountain ranges.
  • NOTE: some labels may not be visible at every scale - you may need to zoom in/out to see labels for some ranges.
  • Details of the data can be found in our guide.

Mountain ranges overlay

Volcanoes

Get Feature Info. tool

Volcanoes overlay

Tectonic Plates and Plate Boundaries

  • View tectonic plates (with names), plate boundaries or both.
  • Details of the data can be found in our guide.

Volcanoes overlay

Reference Grids

Major lines of latitude

Display the following lines on world maps:

  • Arctic Circle
  • Tropic of Cancer
  • Equator
  • Tropic of Capricorn
  • Antarctic Circle

Overlays menu with Major lines of Latitude checked

Latitude/Longitude Grid

Display a latitude/longitude grid on world maps.

Overlays menu with Latitude/Longitude Grid checked