QGIS – Tile Map Services

By David Crowther

Question:

I know I can access Open Street Map Colour as a basemap, but are there any other Tile Map Services available?

Answer:

Definitely,…. QGIS can connect to any compliant Tile Map Service. In fact, if you are feeling adventurous then you can also create your own Tile Map Services from your own spatial repository, but maybe until then, why not try these new ones that I recently found.

Firstly, to add a Tile Map Service into QGIS choose the Browser Panel > XYZ Tiles > Add New Connection > Specify a Name for the Service and then copy in the URL.

These are two new ones that I found recently:

• Open Street Map Black and White – http://tiles.wmflabs.org/bw-mapnik/{z}/{x}/{y}.png
• Hillshading - http://c.tiles.wmflabs.org/hillshading/{z}/{x}/{y}.png

Once the new Tile Map Services were available within QGIS, I then added them as Layers to my Map:

OpenStreetMap Black and White

Hillshading

By combining the Open Street Map Black and White and the Hillshading Tile Maps, and then applying some transparency, I now had a basemap with terrain.

OpenStreetMap Black and White with Hillshading