Improve the readability of ways

This mapstyle improves the visibility of ways (highways, waterways, buildings). Highways and waterways have colors that are more pregnant. Very handy for validators that are inspecting an area when zoomed out. Or for areas that are full of other objects.

With this mapstyle you can also choose the color and the width of the outline of buildings.

Usage and installation

1. Open the Map Paint Styles preferences
   • via the header of the Map Paint Styles panel with the Preferences button or
   • via View menu → Map paint styles → Map paint preferences or
   • via the general preferences dialog Menu Edit → Preferences → Map Paint Styles
2. Click the plus sign on the right and enter the URL of the style file: https://josm.openstreetmap.de/josmfile?page=Styles/ColorWays&style
3. Confirm by clicking the OK button (twice) and exit

See for more installation instructions: Styles

When installed you can right click on the mapstyle and choose building outline color and line width.

Legend

Highways

• unclassified → white
• track → dotted brown - green
• residential → light green - blue
• service → aqua blue
• tertiary → yellow

Waterways

• river → default
• stream → DeepSkyBlue

The code

meta {
    title: "Color Ways";
    description: "Choose your preferred color and line width of building outlines for better visibility on different backgrounds. Also highways and waterways have clearer colors";
    version: "0.2.38_2025-08-14";
    author: "Martien, osm username martien-176";
    link: "https://josm.openstreetmap.de/wiki/Styles/ColorWays";
}

/* Setting Options */

setting::colordisplay {
  type: color;
  label: tr("Color used for displaying buildings");
  default: green;
}

setting::building_line_width {
  type: double;
  label: tr("Choose line width of building");
  default: 2;
}


/* Settings */

/* Buildings */

way[building] {
    color: setting("colordisplay");
}

way[building] {
    width: setting("building_line_width");
}


/* Highways */

way[highway=primary]
{
    width: 6;
}

way[highway=secondary]
{
    width: 4;
}

way[highway=tertiary]
{
    width: 4;
}

way[highway=unclassified]
{
    width: 4;
    color: white;
}

way[highway=track]
{
    width: 4;
    color: peru;
    dashes: 12,9;
    dashes-background-color: springgreen;
}

way[highway=service]
{
    width: 3;
    color: aqua;
}

way[highway=residential]
{
    width: 2;
    color: Aquamarine;
}

/* Waterways */

way[waterway=stream]
{
    width: 2;
    color: DeepSkyBlue;
}

way[waterway=river]
{
    width: 6;
}

Styles_ColorWays-style.mapcss, Styles_ColorWays.zip

If you have questions or remarks, you can reach me via ​https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/martien-176