Key:inscription

inscription
Description
Text which is written on an object.
Group: annotations
Used on these elements
Useful combination
inscription:language=* memorial=plaque historic=epigraph openplaques:id=*
See also
description=* message=* note=* comment=*
Status: de facto
inscription=* More details at taginfo
Tools for this tag
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The key inscription=* is used for the text of inscriptions on buildings, memorials, advertising signs, and other objects.

How to map

Inscription represents text physically found on the feature in the real world.

To represent a line break you can use | or the spaced slash /.

To represent a paragraph breaks you can use the || or the spaced double slash //, depending on the style guide preferred.

iD editor uses real new line character - U+000A (one byte) for line breaks and U+000A, U+000A (two bytes) for paragraph breaks, which might be preferred because real objects can contain the pipe | or slash /characters.

Limited length

As for all values, there is a limit of 255 characters for the value of inscription=*

Splitting across multiple keys

Some mappers overcome the limit by splitting the value across multiple keys, e.g.

• inscription:1=Beginning of very long text....
• inscription:2=...the end!

Referencing other data services

To overcome the length limit, the inscription might be added to:

• inscription:url=* - URL where the inscription can be found on an external website; e.g. Wikisource (useful when the inscription is longer than the above limit).
• wikidata=* - If this feature has a Wikidata item, it can be described there using inscription (Property:P1684), as the character limit is set at 1,500.
• openplaques:id=<ID number> - If it is a commemorative/historical plaque, such as the "here lived" ones, the transcription could be added at openplaques.org and the entry linked with the tag.

Related tags

• inscription:language=*
• man_made=geoglyph
• memorial=plaque
• historic=epigraph, to map epigraphs (inscriptions) on their own (particularly useful to locate inscriptions on bigger objects and where there are several of them).

Tags with different purposes

• description=* - Additional information about an element, containing text not existent in real world.
• note=*
• comment=*
• message=*

Possible tagging mistakes

memorial:text=*

More details at taginfo

• memorial:text=*

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!