Creating custom colour schemes
Each colour scheme is defined by a schema file. The schema file contains the colour and size information for each road type and certain other features, such as Places, water features, map labels, and so forth.
The easiest way to create your own scheme is to start with one of the default schema files. To get to the default schema files, you'll need a file browser for your device (such as iFunBox for use with iOS devices, or ASTRO File Manager for Android).
- In iOS, the day schemes are found in User Applications » Waze » Waze.app » skins » default » day and its subfolders, and the night scheme is found in User Applications » Waze » Waze.app » skins » default » night.
*In Android, the day schemes are found in SD Card (or your root folder) » Waze » skins » default » day and its subfolders, and the night scheme is found in SD Card (or your root folder) » Waze » skins » default » night.
You may wish to copy both directories to your computer to make it easier.
Within the day folder, there are several subfolders. Each subfolder contains a schema file, as does the day folder itself. The schema files correspond to the default schemes as follows:
- 1: The blues
- 2: Mochaccino
- 3: Snow day
- 4: Twilight
- 5: Tutti-frutti
- 6: Rosebud
- 7: Electrolytes
- 8: Map editors
- 9: Green peace
- 10: Minimalism
- 11: Green fields
- 12: Default
- day folder: Vitamin C
To edit a schema file, open it in a text editor. Each schema file is a list of parameters – most relating to colour and size. Colour parameters are in #rrggbb hex colour format (see web colours); some colour parameters have two additional digits, controlling the alpha channel (transparency) of that particular feature (#rrggbbaa).
| Parameter name | What it does |
|---|---|
| General | |
| Map.Background | The background of the map. |
| Labels.Color | The colour of road name label text. |
| Labels.Bgcolor | The outline/outer glow of all text labels – roads, cities, Places, etc. |
| Console.Foreground | unknown |
| Console.Background | unknown |
| Road class: Roads and other lines | |
| Freeways | Freeway |
| Primary | Major Highway |
| Secondary | Minor Highway |
| Highways | Primary Street |
| Streets | Street, Private Road, Parking Lot Road |
| Ramps | Ramp |
| Exit | unknown/unused at this time |
| 4X4 Trails | Dirt road / 4x4 Trail |
| Railroads | Railroad |
| Runways | Runway/Taxiway |
| Ferry | unused at this time? |
| Private | unused at this time |
| Parking | unused at this time |
| Pedestrian | Pedestrian Boardwalk |
| Trails | Walking Trail |
| Walkway | Stairway |
| Road parameters | |
| Class | Class ("Road") |
| Color | Colour of road outline |
| Color1 | Colour of road body |
| Color2 | Colour of unmunched road body |
| Declutter0 | Possibly controls the zoom level at which the road type disappears? |
| Delta11 | Thickness of road outline (in negative pixels) |
| Delta2 | Thickness of unmunched road outline (in negative pixels) |
| Thickness | Overall thickness of road (in nondimensional units) |
| Area class: Places, cities, and water layer | |
| Stations | Most Area Places |
| Cities | Cities (as seen in WME city layer) |
| Airports2 | Islands (not user-editable) |
| Hospitals | unknown/unused at this time |
| Malls | unknown/unused at this time |
| Parks | Area Places: Park, possibly others (Forest? Golf course?) |
| Rivers | unknown/unused at this time |
| Lakes | unknown/unused at this time |
| Sea | Water layer (not user-editable) and water-type Area Places (user-editable) |
| Shore | unknown/unused at this time |
| Area parameters | |
| Class | Class ("Area" or "Feature") |
| Color | Colour of area polygon |
| Color1 | Colour of area border |
| Declutter | unknown |
| Delta11 | Size of area border (in pixels?) |
| Thickness | unknown/unused |
| Other | |
| Navigation.RouteColor | Navigation line to your destination (default: purple) |
| Navigation.PossibleRouteColor | unknown/unused at this time (default: light blue) |
| Navigation.StopPointColor | Navigation line to a stop point (default: pink) |
^0 What declutter does exactly is unknown. What is ascertainable is that the declutter value is a 32-bit signed integer – the freeway type has a declutter value of 2147483647.
^1 The delta values and their corresponding colours seem to operate differently for roads than they do for areas. For roads, Color1 and Color2 are apparently drawn on top of Colour, so the delta values are negative – the Colour "border" is apparently actually the bottom layer. For areas, Color1 is apparently drawn only past the edge of the area, so the delta value is positive – the Color1 "border" seems to be an actual border.
^2 Oddly enough. The "airports" (actually islands) layer is the only area layer drawn on top of the sea (water) layer.