WIP to reflect the changes from #8039 (and #10456).

Layers window

Keyboard shortcut: Shift+Alt+L — one of the JOSM windows

The Layers panel lists the loaded layers, controls their visibility and activates them for editing content.

Layer types

JOSM has several types of layers. Each has a Menu accessed from the right mouse button which provides operations on the layer.

• Data layer - Holds a set of map data objects.
  Map data can usually be downloaded, created and edited unless the layer state is private or locked. A running upload is indicated by . Some uploads are marked risky for OSM.
• GPX layer - Holds GPS track data. Each GPX layer can have own properties like color, line style, etc.
• Marker Layer - Holds identified points on a GPX track, called Markers. They are created in four varieties: Named, Audio, Image and Web.
• Geoimage layer - Holds images which were imported via a GPX layer, dragged on the Mapview or opened.
• Imagery Layer - Holds a background retrieved from a tile server like Bing Aerial or other imagery.
• Validator layer - Highlights errors or warnings for objects on the active data layer.
• Notes layer - Holds Notes from ​OSM.

Most layer types can have several instances in a JOSM session, but the validator and notes layers can exist only once. More layer types come with additional plugins, e.g. ​Mapillary plugin.

Layer Buttons

	Make this layer the active layer
	Snap/unsnap the map zoom to the native resolution of this background imagery
	Hide/unhide the layer

Panel Buttons

The Layers window also has several buttons at the bottom which operate on the selected layers:

Move Up

Up moves the selected layers up one row in the layer stack.

This is important when items in one layer obscure those in layers below. You can reorder layers also by drag and drop.

Move Down

Down moves the selected layers down one row in the layer stack.

Activate Layer

Keyboard shortcut: Shift+A (release keys) then [0-9] - counting from the top

Activate activates the selected layer.

It is only possible to edit in an active Data layer.

Visibility

Following hotkeys used to control visibility of top10 or bottom10 layers:

• Shift+S (release keys) then [0-9] - where 0 it the top layer; 9 - bottom
• Alt+[0-9] - counting from the bottom; 1 - first from the bottom; 0 - bottom10

Once clicked on, it offers:

• A checkbox to show/hide a layer, i.e. turns visibility of selected layers on or off. The layers are unchanged when hidden, but their contents are not shown. You can also use the following shortcuts to show/hide a layer:
• A slider to adjust the Opacity of selected layers.
• A slider to adjust the Colorfulness of selected layers.
• A slider to adjust the Gamma of selected layers.
• A slider to adjust the Sharpness of selected layers.

Colorfulness, Gamma and Sharpness are only availible for imagery layers.

For gpx layers you can choose one of 7 default colors. (Other colors are available via Customize Color in the gpx layer context menu).

Note: For ease of use you can use mouse scrolling to move a slider while the pointer is placed at the slider – no need to click-drag-release the slider picker.

Delete Layer

Delete permanently deletes the selected layers. All unsaved changes will be discarded!

If you try to delete an OSM data layer or Notes layer which contains changes, JOSM will open the Unsaved Changes window, asking to upload and/or save these changes.

Individual Buttons

There might be more buttons depending on the loaded plugins, e.g. ​RasterFilters plugin.

---

• Back to Windows
• Back to Main Help