1:250 000 Scale Colour Raster is a small-scale, digital, raster mapping product giving a regional view, similar in content and appearance to a typical road atlas. It clearly shows the landscape features relevant to its scale, including cities, towns, many villages, motorways, A and B roads, railways, rivers, and some woodlands across Great Britain. You can use 1:250 000 Scale Colour Raster to overlay your own geographic or business data, or use it as a standalone map.
This product is updated annually in June.
A representation of 1:250 000 Scale Colour Raster map data
Easy to manage
This is a raster (flat image) product, so it's quick to load and simple to use.
A regional backdrop map
Motorways and main roads stand out, but you can also see country lanes clearly.
Clearly see places of interest
Places of interest, including camping and caravan sites are clearly shown.
Save money and benefit from simple licensing terms
1:250 000 Scale Colour Raster is free to view, download and use for commercial, educational and personal purposes.
Encourage tourism in your area
With lots of tourist attractions featured, it’s a great map for your website to help visitors plan days out.
Enhance a leaflet or sales brochure with a map of your local area
You can open the files in image editing software and cut out the area you need.
Additional uses
1:250 000 Scale Colour Raster product can also aid with:
Route planning
Geographic context
Enhancing data presentation
Access: Download
Data theme: Contextual
Data structure: Raster
Coverage: Great Britain
Scale: 1:250 000
Format: TIFF palette 8-bit (256 colours) with LZW compression
Ordering area: All of Great Britain
Publication month: June
OS Data Hub plan: OS OpenData Plan (FREE), Public Sector Plan, Premium Plan, Energy & Infrastructure Plan
Colour raster in monochrome
Colour Raster is not available in monochrome. Some GIS applications let you load the colour image and choose a greyscale option from an on-screen menu. This will change the colours on an image to shades of grey (greyscale). On a true monochrome map, features would be either black or white. This wouldn’t be the best way to display 1:250 000 Scale Colour Raster.
Visualise 1:250 000 Scale Colour Raster sample data online
This product is available to try out free online using one of our three sets of sample data (Exeter, Newport and Inverness) through the OS MasterMap Product Viewer:
OS MasterMap Product Viewer
Interactive demonstrator of OS MasterMap Generation data
What's next?
To access additional documentation and resources relating to this product, please refer to the following:
Colour Raster Map Family Overview
The Colour Raster Map Family Overview contains additional information relating to the three Colour Raster Mapping products.
Overview
The overview introduces 1:250 000 Scale Colour raster, giving context for all users – highlighting key features, providing examples of uses, and listing details such as coverage, resolution, etc.
Colour Raster Map Family Technical Specification
The Colour Raster Map Family Technical Specification provides technical information relating to the Colour Raster Map family of products.
Technical Specification
The technical specification provides detailed technical information about 1:250 000 Scale Colour Raster. It is targeted at technical users and software developers.
Downloads
The downloads page provides links and resources to support the application of 1:250 000 Scale Colour Raster within your environment.
New users should start with the Overview to gain high-level insight into the product. The family information documents provide generalised information across all three Colour Raster Map products. The Technical Specification contains detailed technical insights.
