Layers and styling

A map is a stack of layers over a basemap. This page covers building that stack.

#Add layers

• From the This project panel: click a dataset or form layer to add it to the map.
• From your files: import a GeoJSON, GeoPackage, GeoTIFF or zipped Shapefile straight onto the map.
• From the catalogue: add a dataset to the project first (see Find data in the catalogue), then add it here.
• By drawing: create your own points, lines and polygons directly on the map.

Layers draw in the order shown in the layers panel — drag to reorder, and use the eye icon to hide one.

#Style a layer

Select a layer to open its styling. You can:

• change colour, size, opacity and outline;
• style by attribute — for example colour facilities by type, or size points by a number;
• add labels from any attribute.

#Colour scales

The colour-scale picker offers the Orion colour library: about 150 scales grouped by kind (low to high, around a midpoint for change, categories, land and sea, cyclic for directions). Type in its search box to filter by name, source or meaning, for example "rainfall", "population" or "crameri". The same library is offered for raster layers.

Each scale is tagged with the data it suits and checked for colour-blind readers, which is how OrionAI chooses one for you (see The Ask OrionAI panel). For a map most people can read, prefer the low-to-high scales for amounts and rates, and avoid rainbow scales such as Jet and Turbo for them.

The scales come from ColorBrewer (Apache 2.0), CARTOColors by CARTO (CC BY 4.0), cmocean (MIT), Scientific Colour Maps by Fabio Crameri (MIT) and matplotlib, plus Orion's own green, navy and gold scales.

#Edit features

You can select a feature and change its geometry, and edit attribute values, in the browser. Editing a project's own layer changes that layer; editing a form layer changes only how it is shown on the map — the form's submissions are never altered from here.

#Choose a basemap

Pick a basemap from the basemap control: street, light, dark or satellite-style backgrounds. Some basemaps need a token that only the map's author has; when someone else views your published map, OrionGIS automatically substitutes an equivalent open basemap so the map still draws (satellite becomes imagery, dark stays dark, everything else becomes a neutral street map).

#Coordinate systems

Layers in different coordinate systems are reprojected on the fly so they line up. You do not need to convert data before adding it.

#Form layers on a map

A form layer is drawn as points (or lines/areas for line and area questions). Click a point to read that submission. Because form layers are live, reopening the map shows new submissions. See Form data as a map layer.