Key:building:colour

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Public-images-osm logo.svg building:colour
Jar burano 4 houses.jpg
Description
Indicates colour of the building. Show/edit corresponding data item.
Group: buildings
Used on these elements
should not be used on nodesshould not be used on waysmay be used on areas (and multipolygon relations)should not be used on relations (except multipolygon relations)
Requires
Useful combination
Status: de facto

The colour of the facade of a building or building part.

Mostly used for 3D building visualization. Note, that the interpretation of colour names differs between different 3D rendering applications.

It should be used together with the building=* or building:part=* tag.

Tagging

  • The colour should be given in hexadecimal, preceded by a # sign, e.g. #FFFFFF.
  • You can use a descriptive name for the basic colours, e.g. white, red. However, the interpretation of the colour given in this form may vary among different 3D renderers.

Example values

Building Colour Photo
white #FFFFFF Bright white building facade (Unsplash).jpg
brick, brick-red colour #E96B39 Brick wall texture in Nizhny Novgorod.jpg
dark brick #CF2F2F Old Brick Wall - geograph.org.uk - 1459733.jpg
dirty brick #7F0C0C Red brick wall texture.JPG
limestone #F6F0D0 Mosta statues, reliefs and buildings 15.jpg
stones #7A7D80 Stone wall, Co Cork.jpg
light beige #CABC91 Mud houses are commonly found in various regions of Afghanistan..jpg

Tips

  • It is not always easy to choose a colour from a photo. Photos are of varying quality and colours can look different in different photos.
Colour differences of the same building in different photos
Building with a red roof at Kiptopeke State Park.jpg White building with red roof at Kiptopeke State Park.jpg
Colour differences of the same building at different hours
MarekDSC 0281.JPG MarekDSC 0280.JPG MarekDSC 0292.JPG
Early in the morning (too much yellow colour) Sunny noon (too strong contrasts) Late morning, light overcast
  • Beware of optical illusions – a colour in contrast with other colours can look different than it does on its own. Examples:
Both the yellow dots and the backgrounds of the fields on which they are located have identical colours.
The two small squares are exactly the same colour, but the right one looks darker.
  • Instead of this tag, you can use building:material=*, based on which 3D renderers often assign a colour.

Colour selection tools

See also

Possible tagging mistakes

If you know places with this tag, verify if it could be tagged with another tag.
Automated edits are strongly discouraged unless you really know what you are doing!
If you know places with this tag, verify if it could be tagged with another tag.
Automated edits are strongly discouraged unless you really know what you are doing!
If you know places with this tag, verify if it could be tagged with another tag.
Automated edits are strongly discouraged unless you really know what you are doing!