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API Documentation

  • Services
  • Required Parameters
  • Optional Parameters
  • Layer

Services

You can use our OpenStreetMap service tiled or as single image. There are three methods available to use our service.

Tile service

If your web application uses the Web Mercator projection, you can add the tiles directly. Web Mercator is compatible with Google Maps, Bing Maps, Mapbox and OpenStreetMap.

Tile-URL
https://maps.omniscale.net/v2/{api-key}/style.default/{z}/{x}/{y}.png

WMS service

Use our WMS service if you need support for other map projections or map scales.

Basic WMS URL
https://maps.omniscale.net/v2/{api-key}/style.default/map?

Our services are optimized for tile requests (256×256 pixels) and they automatically identify the configuration of your application based on your tile requests. You can use your own tile grid, with your projection and map scales. The only requirement is that your application predefines the map scales for your users.

We have documented the integration into OpenLayers and Leaflet with a few examples.

WMTS service

You can use our WMTS service for tiled access in desktop applications. WMTS is supported by more and more clients and allows faster display when zooming and panning.

WMTS capabilities URL
https://maps.omniscale.net/v2/{api-key}/WMTSCapabilities.xml

Depending on your client, the image quality may be worse when using WMTS compared to WMS.
Please check your client settings if the maps appear blurry or pixelated. QGIS, for example offers the option "Smooth pixmap transform" to improve this.
Please use our WMS services if you are not satisfied with the image quality, if you need a different map projection than Webmercator or if you want to print our maps.

Required Parameters

The three services (Tile Service, WMS, and WMTS) can be customized using parameters in the URL. These parameters are usually added as segments in the URL path. The following parameters are required.

API Key

All our service URLs contain an {api-key}. An API key is a short, unique code. We use the API key for billing requests to your user account.The API key consists of an identifier which you can freely choose and a random number generated by us. The identifier is a short name that helps you and us identify which application the API key is for.

Style Parameter

With the style parameter you are able to select the design of the map. You can select the following styles:

  • default Default map style
  • grayscale Grayscale map style
  • outdoor Outdoor map style with hillshading
Request
https://maps.omniscale.net/v2/{api-key}/style.{name}/map?

Example request default style
https://maps.omniscale.net/v2/demo/style.default/map

Example request grayscale style
https://maps.omniscale.net/v2/demo/style.grayscale/map

Example request outdoor style
https://maps.omniscale.net/v2/demo/style.outdoor/map

Optional Parameters

Our services support optional parameters that can typically be passed as URL segments (e.g., /option.value/).

Option Value Description
attribution true or false

By default we show an attribution in the map for non-tiled requests.

In some cases it is necessary to hide the attribution on the map image. You are still required to show the attribution somewhere else, if you use our maps on your website or on any document.

dpi Number from 90 to 300 Create a high-resolution map for printing. By default our maps will be rendered with 90.7 DPI. Note: This option is only available on private keys.

You will find more information about printing on our print page.
hq true or false Returns maps with twice the resolution, optimized for smartphones and tablets with HQ/Retina displays. This applies only to tiled requests.
Please look at the web examples.
layers comma separated list with layer, +layername or -layername Limits the standard layers of the provided service.
epsg Number of the EPSG coordinate system Limits the WMS service to a single coordinate system. Only available for WMS GetCapabilities requests. This parameter is a query parameter (i.e. /map?epsg=25832).
Example WMS request without attribution in 300 DPI
https://maps.omniscale.net/v2/demo/style.grayscale/attribution.false/dpi.300/map

Attribution

The use of OpenStreetMap requires attribution of the source. In non-tiled WMS responses, this attribution is already included. You can remove the automatic attribution by adding attribution.false to the URL.

Ensure that the following attribution (copyright notice) is included when embedding our maps on a website or displaying them in documents.

  • For default and grayscale:
    © Omniscale 2025 (https://maps.omniscale.com) – Map data: OpenStreetMap (License ODbL)
  • For outdoor:
    © Omniscale 2025 (https://maps.omniscale.com) – Map data: OpenStreetMap (License ODbL), ASTER GDEM is a product of NASA and METI

Select your EPSG

Our OpenStreetMap WMS offers a large selection of coordinate systems. All coordinate systems are added to the WMS capabilites document. A few desktop applications cannot handle this and always use the first code. For these clients you can select the target EPSG code in the URL directly.

Example
https://maps.omniscale.net/v2/demo/style.grayscale/map?epsg={epsg-code}

Example GetCapabilities request with EPSG 25833
https://maps.omniscale.net/v2/demo/style.grayscale/map?service=WMS&request=GetCapabilities&epsg=25833

Only GetCapabilities requests need the epsg parameter

Layer

osm is the default layer. This layer contains the most relevant sub-layers.

Besides the WMS layers query parameter, our services also support an optional layers parameter as URL segment. You can change the standard layer selection with this parameter, and you can also flexibly select layers for tile services.

You can select multiple layers using a comma separated list. You can also include or exclude layers by prefixing them with + or -. For example layers.-labels,-housenumbers shows the default map without any labels and housenumbers, and layers.%2Bpois shows the default map including POIs. Note that + needs to be encoded as %2B in URLs.

Available Layers

All default layers are included in the osm-layer.

Name Default Description
world ✓ Basic background (land areas and water)
landusages ✓ Land use (forests, parks, built-up areas, etc.)
admin ✓ Borders
roads ✓ Roads
buildings ✓ Buildings
labels ✓ Labels
housenumbers ✓ House numbers
pois Points of Interest (shops, police stations, hospitals, parking lots, etc.)

Example

Tile request for buildings in high-quality, for mobile applications
https://maps.omniscale.net/v2/{api-key}/style.default/layers.buildings/hq.true/{z}/{x}/{y}.png

WMS request: Streets and labels only
https://maps.omniscale.net/v2/demo/style.default/map?LAYERS=roads,labels&FORMAT=image/png&SERVICE=WMS&VERSION=1.1.1&SRS=EPSG:31467&REQUEST=GetMap&BBOX=3648808.05872,5599105.55872,3669808.05872,5621605.55872&WIDTH=420&HEIGHT=450

WMS Capabilies for desktop GIS for maps without labels:
https://maps.omniscale.net/v2/demo/style.default/layers.-labels,-housenumbers/map?SERVICE=WMS&REQUEST=GetCapabilities

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