Map Theme Summary

 

Not sure which Garmin models have "Map Themes" available but I found that changing this on mine (under SETTINGS, NAVIGATION, AUTOMOBILE, and then MAP THEME) had a huge impact on screen visibility. For those who can change their map themes, hope this helps summarize things a little. I couldn't find this anywhere on-line and it really does have a huge impact.

As a sidenote, only Deutschland, Italia, and United Kingdom differentiate between big highways and bigger highways.

The following summary is for the colours you see during the day, which is when I do most of my travelling.

RESIDENTIAL AREAS:
This is the biggest difference. As follows:
Yellowish-Beige: Danmark
Yellow, Yellow Beige: Nederland
Grey: Garmin, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Polska
Light Green: Deutschland
Very Light Green: Italia, Österreich, Slovensko, United Kingdom
Pink: Suomi
Brown-Grey: Navigon

RESIDENTIAL STREET:
All show residential streets as white except Deutschland and Österreich which use grey. Navigon doesn't highlight its streets.

BIG ROADS:
All show big roads as yellow except Deutschland and Österreich which use white. Once again, Navigon doesn't highlight its streets.

MAJOR ROADS:
As noted above, this is where the UK, Deutschland, and Italia stand out:
Yellow: Garmin, Belgium, Danmark, Luxembourg, Österreich, Polska, Navigon
Orange: Deutschland (not so major is yellow), France, Italia (not so major is lighter orange), Nederlands
Blue: Slovensko
Purple: Suomi
Green: United Kingdom (not so major is red)

MAJOR HIGHWAYS:
Orange: Garmin, Belgium, Luxembourg, Österreich, Polska
Red: Danmark, France
Dark Orange: Deutschland
Green: Italia, Nederlands, Slovensko, Suomi
Blue: United Kingdom
Light Blue: Navigon

Parks are always a shade of green, while water is always a shade of blue.

There are other changes but these are the big ones you always see.

After travelling for 5 hours today in an area I've never been before and experimenting throughout, I liked Danmark the most. It was easy on the eyes and looked professional. I do wish the Danmark theme split up big highways and bigger highways like the three countries stated above do, even if just by using a lighter shade of yellow.

I'm curious as to what the preferences are of others or if you've even given "Map Themes" the time of day.

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Models that have "Map Themes"

imgrund wrote:

Not sure which Garmin models have "Map Themes" available

https://support.garmin.com/support/searchSupport/case.faces?caseId={0516a870-d646-11df-c826-000000000000}

Cheers smile

--
Nüvi 255WT with nüMaps Lifetime North America born on 602117815 / Nüvi 3597LMTHD born on 805972514 / I love Friday’s except when I’m on holidays ~ canuk

Thanks!

Just wanted to say thanks for your summary and recommendations. Very helpful!

A tip for viewing themes

After playing around with the themes a bit I've found that if you go to the themes menu (Tools>Settings>Navigation>Automobile>Map Theme) and then try zooming out in order to see as many different map details as you can and then select each theme. This helps to see the subtle differences between the themes. Currently I like the Nederlands theme just because I like green and orange.

I prefer the UK Theme

Themes are not documented very well and most folks that have them on their units don't know much about them. Thanks for posting the topic. Sorry I missed it when you first put it up back in August.

I tried out all of the themes and the one I kept coming back to was the UK theme.

Gary Hayman has an excellent article about themes on his website. It is called "MERRILY DOWN THE 3700's THEMES -- A Kaleidoscope Of Colors" He even has screen shots of the various themes. You can find the article about half way down Page 16 of his site: http://is.gd/Hehs4F

--
Garmin nüvi 3597LMTHD, 3760 LMT, & 255LMT, - "Those who wish for fairness without first protecting freedom will end up with neither freedom nor fairness." - Milton Friedman

This was helpful for me too.

This was helpful for me too. Thanks!

Thanks

Many Thanks for your observations and for starting this topic. I also had searched a bit and found next to nothing about the themes available on my 2370.

Question for all, is there one of the themes that is considered "default"? I have browsed a few of them and none seem to really match what I have come to think of as the standard Garmin color scheme as on a 1490 for example.

Nuvi 2555

The Nuvi 2555 has the themes option. I have changed to the United Kingdom theme; it makes the maps look awfully like the Ordinance Survey maps that I grew up with. Going to try the other themes on my regular route to work to spot the differences.

--
Nuvi2797LMT (2) Nuvi260,Ford Sync3 Navigation. Captain Cook was a Yorkshire man too.

Thank You for posting this review

I am also currently using the UK Theme on my newly acquired 2555 simply because it provides better contrast when I'm driving w/ sunglasses. It also most closely simulates the OEM scheme of my 1450.

Thanks

Now I have something else to play with on my GPS.

--
Nuvi 2797LMT, DriveSmart 50 LMT-HD, Using Windows 10. DashCam A108C with GPS.

imgrund wrote: Not sure

imgrund wrote:

Not sure which Garmin models have "Map Themes" available but I found that changing this on mine (under SETTINGS, NAVIGATION, AUTOMOBILE, and then MAP THEME) had a huge impact on screen visibility.

Thanks for posting this information. I just bought a Garmin 65LM to replace my dying 760 and I almost returned it because the screen is washed out during the day.

After reading your post (and the other comments) I played with the different themes and found that Österreich seems to work for me.

Thanks!
Jim

Gary Hayman's Garmin FAQ (pg.16) has screen shots ...

(mid page)...of each of the Garmin OEM map themes:

http://home.comcast.net/~ghayman3/garmin.gps/page16.htm

(BTW: It would be nice if Garmin updated this file with a "Traditional" entry emulating the style of the Nuvi1450 which I find is more legible than the new choices ... or perhaps a "roll your own utility".) idea

Themes

The themes can be edited, and a new one created. Just change the colours using hex, and find a combo you like.

--
nüvi 3790T | Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, will make violent revolution inevitable ~ JFK

Cutsom Map Themes

Juggernaut wrote:

The themes can be edited, and a new one created. Just change the colours using hex, and find a combo you like.

Oh, really? I'm very interested, can you give more information on how to do that? I would love to create my own.

Out of all of them, Österreich worked the best but I liked features of the others.

I would like to have the blue water of Italia and I'd like to make parks, etc greener.

Thanks,
Jim

Here are

--
Nuvi 350, 760, 1695LM, 3790LMT, 2460LMT, 3597LMTHD, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, DriveSmart 61, Garmin Drive 52, Garmin Backup Camera 40 and TomTom XXL540s.

Interesting

t923347 wrote:

Here is a place to get you started:

http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=147689

This looks like it could be fun.

Custom Map Theme

Wow, this is painfully simple. Here's what I did ...

Choose your favorite theme and copy it from your Garmin device (Themes\Map) to a folder on your hard drive.

Open that file with a text editor (I use Notepad++).

Let's use Österreich.kmtf for this example. I created a custom theme called Colorado.

1. Change the title and description metadata:

From:
TITLE: Österreich
DESCRIPTION: Theme for Österreich (Austria).
locale: Österreich
To:
TITLE: Colorado
DESCRIPTION: Theme for Colorado.
locale: Colorado

Note: The above is metadata in xml format which I couldn't get to post correctly but I think you'll get the idea when you look into the kmft file.

2. File -> SaveAs Colorado.kmtf

You have just created a new theme file named Colorado (or whatever you want to name it) that you can freely edit.

3. The tricky part is determining the colors you want to change. I knew I wanted to change the color of water and parks.

I used the following web site to help me get started:
http://www.gpspower.net/software-tools/252092-nuvi-map-theme...
#26

I found that MAP_PARK_CLR was the color green for parks. The original HTML color was
day = "#98EA98"
and I wanted to change it to
day = "#66BF7F"

I used the following color chart to help me decide the color I wanted:

http://www.w3schools.com/tags/ref_colorpicker.asp

4. I then changed all instances of #98EA98 to #66BF7F (there are 6 instances to change).

I followed the same pattern to change any other color I wanted to change.

5. After you have made all your desired changes, save your new theme and copy your new theme (Colorado.kmtf for this example) back to your Garmin device (Themes\Map) directory.

6. Turn off and on your GPS. Select your new theme and see if you like the changes. The beauty of this is you have a new theme to play around with until you get it the way you want it and your original theme is still intact.

Jim

.

The beautiful thing is, you can use find/ replace/ replace all to change all 6 instances. No need to hunt for them all. wink

--
nüvi 3790T | Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, will make violent revolution inevitable ~ JFK

Custom Map Theme

Yep, that's exactly what I did smile

Custom Map Theme

Yep, that's exactly what I did smile

Themes

I have a Custom theme that I've been editing off and on now for a year. I wish I could share it since it's meant to improve visibility.

Also, in addition to editing colors, you can also edit the scale of streets and their borders. No built in theme has any variation of this except Navigon I believe.

Sharing themes

Narvick wrote:

I have a Custom theme that I've been editing off and on now for a year. I wish I could share it since it's meant to improve visibility.

Also, in addition to editing colors, you can also edit the scale of streets and their borders. No built in theme has any variation of this except Navigon I believe.

That would be great if we could share our custom themes. My intent for changing/modifying a theme was for better contrast. I would be happy to share mine. I am basically a geek so will probably have a few by the time I'm done smile

I looked for a way to post an attachment last night but couldn't find one (also couldn't find a way to delete my double post).

Jim

Custom Themes

If anyone is interested, I was able to post my custom theme here:

http://www.gpspower.net/software-tools/252092-nuvi-map-theme...

see #45

I wish we could share them here.

Can't get it.

Skyblues wrote:

If anyone is interested, I was able to post my custom theme here:

http://www.gpspower.net/software-tools/252092-nuvi-map-theme...

see #45

I wish we could share them here.

The site is secure.

Installed

Skyblues wrote:

If anyone is interested, I was able to post my custom theme here:

http://www.gpspower.net/software-tools/252092-nuvi-map-theme...

see #45

I wish we could share them here.

Installed your theme and it looks good. Haven't used it on the road yet but that will come soon.

One question, did you do any work on the night colors? I don't see much change there but see a lot of updates to the daytime colors. Again, this is just from viewing the theme while sitting at my desk.

--
Nuvi 350, 760, 1695LM, 3790LMT, 2460LMT, 3597LMTHD, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, DriveSmart 61, Garmin Drive 52, Garmin Backup Camera 40 and TomTom XXL540s.

The

jjen wrote:

The site is secure.

The site requires you to login just like this one does. I admit they seem to tolerate a lot more hacking and torrent crap than most sites like ours do but I think overall there is a fair amount of good information to be had.

--
Nuvi 350, 760, 1695LM, 3790LMT, 2460LMT, 3597LMTHD, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, DriveSmart 61, Garmin Drive 52, Garmin Backup Camera 40 and TomTom XXL540s.

Night colors

t923347 wrote:
Skyblues wrote:

If anyone is interested, I was able to post my custom theme here:

http://www.gpspower.net/software-tools/252092-nuvi-map-theme...

see #45

I wish we could share them here.

Installed your theme and it looks good. Haven't used it on the road yet but that will come soon.

One question, did you do any work on the night colors? I don't see much change there but see a lot of updates to the daytime colors. Again, this is just from viewing the theme while sitting at my desk.

I didn't do much with the night colors since I don't do much traveling at night. I think I may spend some time with them, though. It will probably be fun now that I have a pretty good understanding of what the style fields mean.

Too Much Information

t923347 wrote:
jjen wrote:

The site is secure.

The site requires you to login just like this one does. I admit they seem to tolerate a lot more hacking and torrent crap than most sites like ours do but I think overall there is a fair amount of good information to be had.

Too much information to register for me. I'll pass.

Thank You

Igrund,

Thank You for the summary and the detailed information.
It looks very interesting.

DavidH

Custom Theme

Okay, so the best way I can share this is from PasteBin. http://pastebin.com/FQz2fCrY

All you have to do is paste this information into a new .KMTF file and there's your new theme.
I recommend going into your Theme folder on the GPS, make a COPY of an existing theme file, rename it. Open it up for editing in Notepad, delete all of the current text, paste the new text in there and save.
You should be able to select it on the GPS then.

Looks Good!

Narvick wrote:

Okay, so the best way I can share this is from PasteBin. http://pastebin.com/FQz2fCrY

All you have to do is paste this information into a new .KMTF file and there's your new theme.
I recommend going into your Theme folder on the GPS, make a COPY of an existing theme file, rename it. Open it up for editing in Notepad, delete all of the current text, paste the new text in there and save.
You should be able to select it on the GPS then.

I'm going to road test this on the weekend ..... looks encouraging!

--
If the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem quickly resembles a nail. (Maslow's Hammer)

Did

Did anyone notice that no matter what you call the .kmtf file you create in Notepad, it appears on the Nuvi with the name "Custom"?

--
Nuvi 350, 760, 1695LM, 3790LMT, 2460LMT, 3597LMTHD, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, DriveSmart 61, Garmin Drive 52, Garmin Backup Camera 40 and TomTom XXL540s.

Edit the File ....

t923347 wrote:

Did anyone notice that no matter what you call the .kmtf file you create in Notepad, it appears on the Nuvi with the name "Custom"?

It's a spec within the theme file. In the above example, depending how the file was copied/created, somewhere around the 8th line in your editor, is where you specify how Garmin will show the name of the file.

Take a look and you will see the name, Custom. Change that to anything you want ... That's all you have to do!

--
If the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem quickly resembles a nail. (Maslow's Hammer)

Custom

Custom appears in the Title line of your theme's code and in the Locale line. Do you need to change both, just one, and if just one, which one?

I notice in another theme, not named Custom, that both lines contained the name showing in the Nuvi's theme list.

By the way, I've been simulating routes using your theme and I like it a lot. Thanks for making it available to us. smile

--
Nuvi 350, 760, 1695LM, 3790LMT, 2460LMT, 3597LMTHD, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, DriveSmart 61, Garmin Drive 52, Garmin Backup Camera 40 and TomTom XXL540s.

I'd do both .....

Change both LOCAL as well as TITLE be sure that you've covered all options. I've even changed the DESCRIPTION to something more practical for me.

--
If the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem quickly resembles a nail. (Maslow's Hammer)

You're welcome

t923347 wrote:

Custom appears in the Title line of your theme's code and in the Locale line. Do you need to change both, just one, and if just one, which one?

I notice in another theme, not named Custom, that both lines contained the name showing in the Nuvi's theme list.

By the way, I've been simulating routes using your theme and I like it a lot. Thanks for making it available to us. smile

I actually have a newer version I need to upload (I gotta grab it from my GPS...I tweaked trails and ramps again).
To answer your question, the name of the theme that appears on your GPS is not the filename, it's in the text inside the file within the [TITLE] parameters. You can change it to whatever you want.

If anyone is interested, I encourage you to fiddle around with the colors and scales. In the year I've been editing this theme, I have found that if a mistake is made like you accidentally don't have a " where it needs to be, or you deleted a color, the GPS seems to "default" to a color. In other words, don't worry about breaking your GPS by just simply messing around with a theme file.

Also, I failed to mention this but I used the Italia theme as my starting point.

New Version

Okay, I've uploaded the current version of this theme. It's the same link: http://pastebin.com/FQz2fCrY
This is what I am currently using on my GPS.

A few questions

Narvick, Thanks for making available your customized theme file. I'll give it a try.

Obviously you have done a significant amount of research to find all available fields.
Where did you find the complete listings of fields?
Is there a listing somewhere describing the fields?
For example:
What is the difference between Primary and Secondary for selecting colors?
What is the difference between MAP_ROAD_INTERSTATE_CLR and MAP_ROAD_SS_INTERSTATE_CLR?
For PRESENTATIONS, what is the difference between Guidance and Browse?

I'm guessing that if a field is not listed in the customized kmtf files, it reverts to the "Garmin" default.

By the way, I'm finding that an xml editor such as foxe (firstobject.com) seems to provide a better view of the file because it has available the ability to view it as a tree.

Differences in Theme files between nuvis

I'd been working (playing) with my 3597 color settings.
I decided to take a look at the kmtf files on my 3590 and noticed that the 3590 files are significantly larger.
For example, the UK file on the 3597 is 10.7k and on the 3590 it's 62.5k.
The 3590 file shows 6 "Presentations" while the 3590 file shows only one, that being "Guidance"

Just an observation----

Where is the default?

On my 2595 I see the following in the Themes directory.

Quote:

/Themes/Map/Belgium.kmtf
/Themes/Map/Danmark.kmtf
/Themes/Map/Deutschland.kmtf
/Themes/Map/France.kmtf
/Themes/Map/Italia.kmtf
/Themes/Map/Luxembourg.kmtf
/Themes/Map/Navigon.kmtf
/Themes/Map/Nederland.kmtf
/Themes/Map/Osterreich.kmtf
/Themes/Map/Polska.kmtf
/Themes/Map/Slovakia.kmtf
/Themes/Map/Suomi.kmtf
/Themes/Map/United Kingdom.kmtf

All of these appear when I go to Themes on the device itself but there is a theme named "Garmin" that also appears (and is the default).

I cannot find a Garmin.kmtf it on my device.

The

The Garmin theme never shows in the listing contained in the Themes folder. I'm assuming it's stored in the Nuvi's protected internal storage.

--
Nuvi 350, 760, 1695LM, 3790LMT, 2460LMT, 3597LMTHD, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, DriveSmart 61, Garmin Drive 52, Garmin Backup Camera 40 and TomTom XXL540s.

Garmin Theme

t923347 wrote:

The Garmin theme never shows in the listing contained in the Themes folder. I'm assuming it's stored in the Nuvi's protected internal storage.

The Garmin Theme is listed on my 2597. It's too dark for my use.

My assumption also

t923347 wrote:

The Garmin theme never shows in the listing contained in the Themes folder. I'm assuming it's stored in the Nuvi's protected internal storage.

That is what I was assuming, but wanted to see if others shared that view.

Yes

jjen wrote:
t923347 wrote:

The Garmin theme never shows in the listing contained in the Themes folder. I'm assuming it's stored in the Nuvi's protected internal storage.

The Garmin Theme is listed on my 2597. It's too dark for my use.

Yes, it's listed as a selectable theme but if you go into the Themes folder on the Nuvi I don't think you will find it there. As I mentioned, I think the actual Garmin theme is stored in an area of the Nuvi's memory that isn't accessible by the user.

--
Nuvi 350, 760, 1695LM, 3790LMT, 2460LMT, 3597LMTHD, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, DriveSmart 61, Garmin Drive 52, Garmin Backup Camera 40 and TomTom XXL540s.

Answers

BobHy wrote:

Narvick, Thanks for making available your customized theme file. I'll give it a try.

Obviously you have done a significant amount of research to find all available fields.
Where did you find the complete listings of fields?
Is there a listing somewhere describing the fields?
For example:
What is the difference between Primary and Secondary for selecting colors?
What is the difference between MAP_ROAD_INTERSTATE_CLR and MAP_ROAD_SS_INTERSTATE_CLR?
For PRESENTATIONS, what is the difference between Guidance and Browse?

I'm guessing that if a field is not listed in the customized kmtf files, it reverts to the "Garmin" default.

By the way, I'm finding that an xml editor such as foxe (firstobject.com) seems to provide a better view of the file because it has available the ability to view it as a tree.

I'll try to answer all of these questions.
1) I found a listing of the fields at http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/post.asp?method=Reply&TOP...

2) Primary is the main color, secondary is the border. For example, on the theme I uploaded, the standard road MAP_ROAD_RESIDENTIAL_CLR has a main color of white (primary) and a black border (secondary). Not all fields have primary and secondary.

3) I don't know what the difference between regular interstate and SS interstate is, so I change both the same. The link I provided earlier didn't know either.

4) The "Guidance" presentation is the view when the GPS is guiding you. This will be the view you see the most. The "Browse" presentation is the view you see when you browse the map on the GPS (on mine, the browse option is under the "Where to?" magnifying glass option). You can have different styles for different views if you so wish, but I changed them across the board when I made an update.

5) Other people have also said this, but no the default Garmin theme isn't a file you can edit. I also imagine like the others that this is hard coded into the GPS. I also imagine this same type of behavior is the reason why if you don't specify a specific color in your theme, it defaults to the Garmin color.

6) I've never actually used an xml editor before, but I think I'll give that a shot!

Good information

Thanks, Narvick

Quote:jjen wrote:t923347

Quote:

jjen wrote:
t923347 wrote:
The Garmin theme never shows in the listing contained in the Themes folder. I'm assuming it's stored in the Nuvi's protected internal storage.

The Garmin Theme is listed on my 2597. It's too dark for my use.

Yes, it's listed as a selectable theme but if you go into the Themes folder on the Nuvi I don't think you will find it there. As I mentioned, I think the actual Garmin theme is stored in an area of the Nuvi's memory that isn't accessible by the user.

And therein lies my problem. I was very happy with the default garmin on the 2597 but when I switched (or trying to switch) to the 3590, the view is a sickly green for most of the territory in my rural area. It is not very visible. I have edited a few of the kmtf files but can't find what they are using to do that color and I'm now thinking that for large non-populated areas, they default to the sickly green.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Thanks.

I suggest

Switch to another "Theme" say, the one called Osterreich. See if it has colors that you like. If not, switch till you find one you do like.

Now
Open up Notepad
File > Open > navigate to the folder in which you have stored the backup of your 3590. (you have backed it up, haven't you?)
Otherwise find the Themes folder and open the Map folder and look at whatever theme you chose. You will have to go to the next to the last line at the lower right of the "Open" dialog and click on the down arrow to see the other choice which you want called "All Files (*.*)"

Look around for possible "stylelist" entries. One might be
"MAP_LAND_CLR", or "MAP_MISC_AREA_CLR", or "MAP_URBAN_LAND_CLR". Make note of the colors.

There is a post above that may help
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/37431/#comment-372428

Been there, Done that

I will do some more looking, but I have looked at all of the themes and they all resort to the same sickly green when you get out into the boonies... Cities, even small ones are in a nice color, but when you get outside of those, it's back to the green... Have edited a few and still no luck.

But thanks for the help. I did send an email to garmin support mentioning the 'problem' but I don't expect to get any useful answer.

Added Later: I looked at various themes and compared the 2597 to the 3590 views. If I start in Chicago on the 3590 and go up to the Wisc border at Hebron, the view in ILLINOIS is very green, but changes to a very nice color (light yellow) when going across the Wisc border. If I do the same on the 2597, there IS a color difference at the border but it goes from light yellow to a light gray which would be ok. Much better on the 2597.

So it is 1) a map issue and how the map is handled, and 2) a default issue since I am running the same map version on both devices. Seems to me that they default to colors out in the boonies and they changed the default from the 2597 to the 3590.

Map Theme

To Bsm999:
I think you are referring to the color scheme for non-urban land. I have found no way to edit those colors, it seems to be hard coded within the unit.

I don't know the exact elevations, but close to sea level non-urban land is a shade of green. When you go up higher it becomes this yellowish-green that isn't very pleasant (I bet you that's what you're referring to, I'd liken it to "piedmont" elevations). Up in the mountains, it becomes beige. At higher elevations, it turns reddish and becomes more brown the higher you get.

The only designated areas that we can change are urban areas and "misc areas". Garmin unfortunately marks many different areas as Misc areas and you can't differentiate them. On my 3760LMT, only things like airports, reservations, large factories, railroad depots, and theme parks are set off by this. Other models added shopping centers, hospitals, and colleges/universities.

But if the land in question is not one of those areas and is not within a city/town boundary, it will be those green-to-brown gradations that cannot be altered.

Map Theme

I think you have it right.... but the terrain I am mentioning is below 1000 ft of Sealvl so I am seeing the shade of green you mention. When I back off the map and look at a large area it is like a patch-work quilt and really looks messy. True, that if you drove that area, you would go to green and then to yellow maybe many times in a 100 mile drive. Can't really see their thought process on doing that.

I found at this site:

http://tinyurl.com/kumuklb

a pretty good list of added styles and some added information which may hold the secret to changing the defaults... but there is not enough info and I need to psych it out some more. For instance, they mention MAP_MISC_AREA_CLR = : with a number of 75 for 'background' but no mention of how to use that number. Will do more digging.

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