{"id":176481,"date":"2011-08-11T22:54:41","date_gmt":"2011-08-11T22:54:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/?post_type=blog&#038;p=176481"},"modified":"2018-12-18T10:37:29","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T18:37:29","slug":"using-basemap-transparency","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-online\/mapping\/using-basemap-transparency","title":{"rendered":"Using Basemap Transparency"},"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":[23171,33371,94842],"industry":[],"product":[36551],"class_list":["post-176481","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mapping","tag-basemaps","tag-map-viewer","tag-transparency","product-arcgis-online"],"acf":{"short_description":"With the latest update to ArcGIS Online you can now tone down your basemap to make other layers \u201cpop\u201d by using transparency. ","flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<p>With the latest update to ArcGIS Online you can now tone down your basemap to make other\u00a0layers \u201cpop\u201d by using transparency. We covered a different technique to\u00a0accomplish this in\u00a0<a title=\"View blog post\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.esri.com\/Support\/blogs\/arcgisonline\/archive\/2011\/04\/26\/toning-down-your-basemaps.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">an earlier post<\/a>\u00a0and also covered some new basemaps in progress\u00a0in\u00a0<a title=\"View blog post\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.esri.com\/Info\/blogs\/esri-insider\/archive\/2011\/07\/25\/inside-new-basemaps.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">another post on the Esri Insider<\/a>. But let\u2019s take a closer look at how the new basemap transparency can be used to tone down your basemap.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s our map showing faults in the south-central portion of Nevada. The purple fault lines are little hard to see against the dark imagery background, and since these are from a published service we can\u2019t interactively change the color.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/downloads2.esri.com\/blogs\/images\/support_3601.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We could choose a different basemap, but another alternative if we want to use the same imagery basemap is to adjust its transparency.<\/p>\n<p>Hover over the basemap in the map contents and click the arrow that appears to choose transparency and display the transparency slider:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/downloads2.esri.com\/blogs\/images\/support_3602.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s our improved map that enables the purple fault lines to be more easily seen.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/downloads2.esri.com\/blogs\/images\/support_3603.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>(Note that basemap transparency is currently supported only using the\u00a0<a title=\"Open map viewer\" href=\"http:\/\/www.arcgis.com\/home\/webmap\/viewer.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ArcGIS.com map viewer<\/a>\u00a0and not in\u00a0<a title=\"Start Explorer Online\" href=\"http:\/\/explorer.arcgis.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Explorer Online<\/a>\u00a0&#8211; it will be soon.)<\/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>Using Basemap Transparency<\/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\/using-basemap-transparency\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Using Basemap Transparency\" \/>\n<meta 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