{"id":175341,"date":"2011-04-27T17:15:37","date_gmt":"2011-04-27T17:15:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/?post_type=blog&#038;p=175341"},"modified":"2018-12-18T10:37:34","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T18:37:34","slug":"a-technique-for-toning-down-your-basemaps","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-online\/mapping\/a-technique-for-toning-down-your-basemaps","title":{"rendered":"A Technique For Toning Down Your Basemaps"},"author":7641,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":""},"categories":[22941],"tags":[23171,26501,31301],"industry":[],"product":[36551],"class_list":["post-175341","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mapping","tag-basemaps","tag-services","tag-symbology","product-arcgis-online"],"acf":{"short_description":"We\u2019re working on some new basemap styles and capabilities that will offer additional basemap choices to create a better backdrop","flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<p>We\u2019re working on some new basemap styles and capabilities that will offer additional basemap choices to\u00a0create a better backdrop for certain kinds of information. The one\u00a0shown below\u00a0was used in\u00a0our recent Super Bowl Edition FanMap:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/downloads2.esri.com\/blogs\/images\/support_3249.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Note that the basemap is a dark slate gray, with muted colors used throughout that allows the symbols to show more clearly, and also doesn\u2019t compete with the primary information subject of the map \u2013 fan votes for Superbowl favorites.<\/p>\n<p>Recently someone asked me how\u00a0to tone down the World Imagery basemap to make their symbols \u201cpop\u201d and\u00a0wondered if there was a way to darken things a bit. That ended up being a great enhancement request, and we\u2019ll be adding some additional options for you to control the brightness (and potentially more) in a future update. But here\u2019s a little trick that you can use now.<\/p>\n<p>Below is our basemap with several symbols used\u00a0to show the route for a cross-town\u00a0cycling event. We\u2019re using the World Imagery basemap, and the symbols just don\u2019t seem to \u201cpop\u201d as much as we\u2019d like.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/downloads2.esri.com\/blogs\/images\/support_3250.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The imagery basemap is very bright and\u00a0competes visually\u00a0with our cycling route details.\u00a0We toned down the basemap, and made it darker (as shown below) to make the symbols \u201cpop.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/downloads2.esri.com\/blogs\/images\/support_3251.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve exaggerated the darkness a bit to make our point, but you get the idea. The symbols are\u00a0definitely more visible with the\u00a0darkened imagery basemap.<\/p>\n<p>Ok, so how did we do it? It\u2019s simple and there are two approaches you can take. One is to publish an ArcGIS\u00a0layer service that\u2019s a large, shaded polygon and add that to your map, adjusting the transparency for the desired effect. Another technique is to add a polygon map note, and adjust the transparency of the note feature. Both provide the desired result, and are simple enough to do.<\/p>\n<p>Below is a webmap embedded in a\u00a0<a title=\"View website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ospmag.com\/expo\/points_of_interest\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">public website<\/a>\u00a0that uses\u00a0the same technique to make the symbols \u201cpop.\u201d This map uses a ArcGIS layer service that\u2019s a partially transparent, off-white polygon.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"View website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ospmag.com\/expo\/points_of_interest\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/downloads2.esri.com\/blogs\/images\/support_3252.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n"}],"authors":[{"ID":7641,"user_firstname":"Bernie","user_lastname":"Szukalski","nickname":"Bern Szukalski","user_nicename":"bszukalski","display_name":"Bern Szukalski","user_email":"bszukalski@esri.com","user_url":"","user_registered":"2018-03-26 17:55:14","user_description":"I am a corporate technology evangelist and geo advocate at Esri, focusing on ways to broaden access to geographic information and helping customers succeed with ArcGIS. \r\n\r\nOn a good day I'm making a map, on a great day I'm on one. Email bszukalski@esri.com or connect on LinkedIn (https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/bernszukalski\/).","user_avatar":"<img data-del=\"avatar\" src='https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/02\/bern04-465x465.png' class='avatar pp-user-avatar avatar-96 photo ' height='96' width='96'\/>"}],"related_articles":"","card_image":false,"wide_image":false},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Technique For Toning Down Your Basemaps<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-online\/mapping\/a-technique-for-toning-down-your-basemaps\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Technique 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