Overlay map color schemes

[Jim]

So I just noticed an issue: whenever I try to specify a TM color in Mapview, it comes out instead as black.  CSS colors and RGB values work OK, but not TM colors.  Oddly enough, your sample "bad-looking combination" link works fine, so I'm not sure what's going on.

Anyone else seeing similar problems?  Might be worth force-reloading to make sure tmjsfuncs.js is a fresh copy.

[vdeane]

Looking at the orange and purple implemented, they're close to existing colors, so I imagine those would be more for user customization or as alternates for the existing magenta and yellow.

So I just noticed an issue: whenever I try to specify a TM color in Mapview, it comes out instead as black.  CSS colors and RGB values work OK, but not TM colors.  Oddly enough, your sample "bad-looking combination" link works fine, so I'm not sure what's going on.

Anyone else seeing similar problems?  Might be worth force-reloading to make sure tmjsfuncs.js is a fresh copy.

I figured out what happened: TM colors should only be specified once, not separately for clinched and unclinched as other colors are.

[Jim]

Looking at the orange and purple implemented, they're close to existing colors, so I imagine those would be more for user customization or as alternates for the existing magenta and yellow.

That's a good point. Maybe they should both be darker versions to distinguish better from the existing magenta and yellow.

[Jim]

A comment by nezinscot in another thread about colorblindness reminded me of this discussion.  While we already have the ability for users to specify QS parameters to replace the colors to their own liking, it's not especially easy to use and I bet almost no one does.  I would like to add support for multiple, well thought out color schemes that could easily be selected by users via QS parameters and saved in cookies or by some other TBD mechanism.  Of course, this requires some work on the web front end to support it, but also requires some effort to come up with a collection of good color schemes.  Anyone interested in taking this on?

[pderocco]

I don't think there's enough contrast between traveled and untraveled roads in Mapview, especially when zoomed out and the lines are skinny. There should be a way to turn the unhighlighted (actually translucently highlighted) roads off.

Also, I think radio buttons might be a quicker way to choose what's highlighted, rather than a pulldown box.

[michih]

Both is fine for me. It took some time to figure out good color values back then.... See above. However, feel free to suggest better color values.

Edit: Topics merged.

[pderocco]

I don't have a problem with the colors. It's just that the translucent lines, while useful sometimes, also obscure the underlying map to some extent, making it more difficult to read route numbers and place names. I'd like to be able to choose whether to see those at all.

[Jim]

I don't have a problem with the colors. It's just that the translucent lines, while useful sometimes, also obscure the underlying map to some extent, making it more difficult to read route numbers and place names. I'd like to be able to choose whether to see those at all.

I'd like to add the ability to show/hide either traveled or untraveled segments.

https://github.com/TravelMapping/Web/issues/771

[osu-lsu]

I don't have a problem with the colors. It's just that the translucent lines, while useful sometimes, also obscure the underlying map to some extent, making it more difficult to read route numbers and place names. I'd like to be able to choose whether to see those at all.

I'd like to add the ability to show/hide either traveled or untraveled segments.

https://github.com/TravelMapping/Web/issues/771

I thought you already did? At least I can turn off, or on, the translucent lines for traveled sections when I go to any "political subdivision" (I traveled through).

[michih]

I don't have a problem with the colors. It's just that the translucent lines, while useful sometimes, also obscure the underlying map to some extent, making it more difficult to read route numbers and place names. I'd like to be able to choose whether to see those at all.

I'd like to add the ability to show/hide either traveled or untraveled segments.

https://github.com/TravelMapping/Web/issues/771

Cross-posting from Github:

I don't like the idea. It would make it complicated.

I think that we already have everything we need except of a "Disable" option:
Highlight All, Highlight Traveled, Highlight Untraveled, Highlight None, Disable Highlighting

Either the traveled lines or the untraveled lines overlap route numbers. If you want to see them, we could just select Disable Highlighting. With just one option (one drop-down menu). Having more than one element to change, the settings would be awful.

I frequently change from "Highlight Traveled" to "Highlight Untraveled" when planning (or mapping) road trips, and I need "Highlight All" and "Highlight None" for hwy data maintenance. I need to quickly change. And yes, having an "Disable Highlighting" to remove (and reset again) all lines with just one click would be great!

[jtstill]

My issue with the translucent highlighting is that if I'm trying to visualize a road trip within a region or my completion of the region itself from a wide enough perspective, it really doesn't matter whether the highlighting is on "travelled" or not, because I can barely tell the highlighted sections from the unhighlighted sections... I'm sure the translucent overlay when not highlighted is extremely useful from a highway maintenance perspective, but for a casual mapper such as myself who is interested in making visualizations of my personal travels, it's incredibly distracting to have even the unhighlighted (still translucent) lines on the map. I don't know if it's possible to add opacity settings to the unhighlighted sections, or how much computing power it takes, but I'd certainly be willing to optionally wait longer for a load if it gets me a better map view.

[michih]

Good point! So, this could do the trick:

Highlight All, Highlight Traveled, Highlight Untraveled, Highlight None, Traveled Only, Untraveled Only, Disable All

[Jim]

Good point! So, this could do the trick:

Highlight All, Highlight Traveled, Highlight Untraveled, Highlight None, Traveled Only, Untraveled Only, Disable All

Yes, I think this is the one, and I think it should be a straightforward change.  I hope to take a look soon unless someone wants to give it a try and submit a pull request before I have a chance.

[jtstill]

Just bringing this one back into the conversation -- as someone who isn't doing the coding/leg work, I have no room to complain, but as I add more segments to my list file I still think being able to completely turn on/off the translucency of untraveled routes would be great for visualization purposes! Similar to what's below, but with my travels instead of I-80, obviously.

[leshii]

I'm new. I actually must have known this site existed at some point because I had a .list file on an old hard drive that I had one entry for, but either way. I'm just getting started. So I hope this doesn't come across as obnoxious; definitely not my intent.

But I am having a lot of trouble really getting a visual grasp on my travels from maps. The problem is that I don't feel like the distinction between logged and unlogged roads is prominent enough. Or, from another point of view, I'd like to see the ability to remove unlogged roads from maps.

Even when the excess information is removed and it's just a white background, I feel like it's only comprehensible when you're at a scale like below (roughly 100 miles east to west there).

I know you can change to just one color but I find that personally even harder to read.

I lack the technical skills to be of any use, so I know it sounds like I'm complaining without a solution. I'm truly not complaining. Just wondering if there's a technical or other reason for not being able to remove unlogged roads.

Thank you.