Is it possible to change the Garmin's base map and font colours?

Simple question: the base colours on most Garmins are yellow and black, with yellow background and black labels in the day, and black background and yellow labels in the night.

Can anyone suggest how these can be changed?

It could be done with a typ-file, but not for the basic map as far as i know it. Here you can find a typ file editor: http://ati.land.cz/gps/typdecomp/

And a very nice editor it is - I’ve wasted many evenings polishing icons to upload as POI. :slight_smile: I’ve not seen anything there that would let me change either the “empty” areas of a map (equivalent to unprinted paper) or the label colour. It’s a low-priority thing though – some overnight cyclists wondered if they could have a “night vision” style in all red!

I have found this helpful link for reflashing the basemap (in german)
http://www.gps-forum.net/basiskarte-durch-europaische-basiskarte-ersetzen-t661.html
but it uses some warez garmin map of Europe. Is it possible to create a small (<8MB)
OSM-based routable european basemap ?

Control of the base map colour is dependent on GPS model. In some of the more recent ones, you can change the “Garmin yellow” by simply changing the colour of polygon 0x4b using a TYP file. For older models (including the GPSMap76csx that I have) you have to overlay the yellow with a land polygon of a colour of your choosing:

  • You need to generate your own map with mkgmap
  • You need to create your own style that defines land and sea polygons
  • You need to create your own TYP file that contains polygons for land and sea
  • You need to use the mkgmap --generate-sea:polygons option

You can see the results of this method here: http://www.cferrero.net/maps/screenshots_index.html. These are from Mapsource but the effect is identical on the GPS unit.

There are two drawbacks:
a) The garmin yellow base still underlies everything, so when you pan around you briefly see it before the unit draws the land or sea polygon on top
b) Redraws are a little slower due to the unit having to draw a land polygon everywhere.

I agree about using 0x4b and set it to say white.

You can download an OS look alike style from http://www.pinns.co.uk/osm/styles.html
which uses 0x4b to create a white background.
There is more information on the same page regarding changing background colours on an Oregon as well.

I hope I’m not stepping on someones toes for posting to such an old thread. I had the same question as you, and after countless hours of searching and trying things out I managed to change the colors on my eTrex. I wrote a tutorial for absolute beginners like myself, hopefully it will help someone out! Good luck to everyone! https://thingson2wheels.wordpress.com/etrex-colors

Hi , thanks to recent reply , i have 2 brand new Garmin Rino 700 ( this model just come with a basic map and not able to add custom maps so ) , i need replace basemap to a detailed map as openstreet show for Argentina , please you can help me about ??

Hi , thanks to recent reply , i have 2 brand new Garmin Rino 700 ( this model just come with a basic map and not able to add custom maps so ) , i need replace basemap to a detailed map as openstreet show for Argentina , please you can help me about ??

If I look at the specs at https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/576031#specs it seems not possible (only internal memory)

How much storage is on your Garmin Rino 700?

See https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=YwUl1ykxYJ0EVcSOYUxK48

The same Garmin writhes about there Etrex 10 but you can upload maps on the GPS

Then maybe he can change it the same way as the Etrex 10? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex7fGF2sXqk

Another question, is it possible to add/embed OpenStreetMap on a WordPress blog? Is there any official plugin for it that embeds maps automatically?

https://wp-osm-plugin.hyumika.com/

I noticed that the India map has incorrect geographical boundaries (Jammu & Kashmir is missing). Your maps are not correct and I am unable to use them in my project: https://freeignouassignment.com/.