Symbols help us to include lots of detail on maps.
Maps often contain symbols instead of words to label real-life features and make the maps clearer. With so many features on a map, there would not be enough space to write everything down in words.
Symbols can be small pictures, letters, lines or coloured areas to show features like campsites, pubs or bus stations. If you look closely at a map, you will see that it is covered in symbols. There will often be a legend (or key) next to the map to tell you what the symbols mean.
This set of symbols has been selected to cover a good range of use cases. If you would like to request a symbol for inclusion then please do so by raising an issue on this repository for our consideration.
You can view and download the SVGs from this repository.
Customise the colours - Once downloaded you can customise the look and feel of these symbols by changing the colour to suite your visualisation.
Try using the GeoDataViz colour palettes.
Mix and match - You can edit and combine the symbols to create new custom symbols. For example, you can add any other symbol into the centre of a map pin.
Flexible - You can use these symbols for web mapping, desktop GIS or even graphic design. You can also convert SVG into many other image formats.
We have now added a QGIS XML file (OS GeoDataViz Colours & Symbols (QGIS).xml) to this repo which you can load into QGIS and access all the colours and symbols from the toolkit.
- Download the toolkit.
- Copy the folder GDV Symbols to C:\Program Files\QGIS xxxx\apps\qgis-ltr\svg, where xxxx represents whatever version of QGIS you are running).
- Open QGIS.
- Settings > Style Manager.
- Import/Export > Import.
- Import from File > Navigate to location of XML > Open > Add to favourites > Remove or add any additional tag(s) > Select All > Import
- GDV can be found under Tags
We have now added an ArcGIS Pro style or .stylx file (OS GeoDataViz Symbols (ESRI).stylx) to this repo which you can load into ArcGIS Pro and access all the symbols from the toolkit.
Blog post: Map Symbols - This post explores various considerations for map symbol design.
Maki - is an icon set made for map designers, perfect if you're making a map for web or mobile.
The Noun Project - has a huge library of icons, many of which are great for mapping.
Vecteezy - has a whole range of different vector files for download, many of which are suitable for maps.
Map Icons Designer - is a set of 200 map icons and 10 different styles of location pins.
MapkeyIcons - an icon font especially for cartographical use. Developed for retina displays. You can download and use it for free.
Our intention is to only release SVG files. There are many tools available to convert them to other image formats (BMP, PNG, JPEG etc.) and here are some of the online options:
https://www.onlineconverter.com/svg
https://cloudconvert.com/svg-to-png
If you have any feedback about these symbols or would like to request a new one for the set then please raise an issue on this repository.
Thank you
OS GeoDataViz team