{"id":70961,"date":"2016-02-16T15:35:14","date_gmt":"2016-02-16T15:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/uncategorized\/using-basemaps-without-reference-layers\/"},"modified":"2018-03-26T21:07:56","modified_gmt":"2018-03-26T21:07:56","slug":"using-basemaps-without-reference-layers","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/\/uncategorized\/using-basemaps-without-reference-layers","title":{"rendered":"Using basemaps without reference layers"},"author":7641,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28051,23171,29341],"industry":[],"product":[36551,36611],"class_list":["post-70961","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-arcgis-online-tip","tag-basemaps","tag-custom-basemaps","product-arcgis-online","product-story-maps"],"acf":{"short_description":"When authoring a web map you can choose from variety of basemaps available on the Select a basemap gallery. The basemaps displayed are de...","flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<p>When authoring a web map you can choose from variety of basemaps available on the Select a basemap gallery. The basemaps displayed are dependent upon your organization settings, and can be custom configured by the site administrator. The ones shown below are the Esri default basemaps for an organization with the region set to United States.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-59899\" src=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2016\/02\/basemap-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"396\" height=\"520\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Many of the basemaps have text and labels included in the basemap tiles. Others use a reference layer in conjunction with the underlying basemaps. For those using reference layers, you can add just the basemap if the reference layer is not desired. In the collection shown above, basemaps with reference layers are Dark Gray Canvas, Light Gray Canvas, Oceans, and Terrain with Labels.<\/p>\n<p>To add these basemaps without the reference layer, follow these steps.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Step 1.<\/strong> Open a new or existing map, then click Add, then choose Browse Living Atlas Layers.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-59902\" src=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2016\/02\/basemap-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"204\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Step 2.<\/strong> Choose Basemaps from the category list<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-59905\" src=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2016\/02\/basemap-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"246\" height=\"216\" \/><\/p>\n<p>or enter basemap in Search.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-59906\" src=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2016\/02\/basemap-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"585\" height=\"192\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Step 3.<\/strong> Look for entries with &#8220;Base&#8221; in the title. Below, both World Dark Gray Base and World Light Gray Base do not include the reference layer coupled with them in the basemap gallery.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-59907\" src=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2016\/02\/basemap-5.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"584\" height=\"276\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Step 4.<\/strong> Click Add layer to map and choose As Basemap.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-59908\" src=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2016\/02\/basemap-6.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"140\" height=\"179\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The base, without the reference layer, will be your web map basemap. Below is a comparison of the World Dark Gray Base vs. the default Dark Gray Canvas basemap (click to view larger image):<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Click to view larger image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2016\/02\/basemap-7.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-59911\" src=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2016\/02\/basemap-7s.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"196\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In most cases you will want the reference layer, but for special needs using the the base keeps the information presented on the basemap to a minimum.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For more information<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/doc.arcgis.com\/en\/arcgis-online\/create-maps\/choose-basemap.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Choose basemap<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/doc.arcgis.com\/en\/arcgis-online\/create-maps\/choose-basemap.htm#ESRI_SECTION1_5EA1869127A74F19A6FA105A9441766E\" target=\"_blank\">Use your own basemap<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\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'\/>"}]},"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 basemaps without reference layers<\/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\/\/uncategorized\/using-basemaps-without-reference-layers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Using basemaps without reference layers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" 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