Orienteering at school for ages 13-15, Chapter 12: THE MAP’S COLOURS

THE MAP’S COLOURS

The language of the map

The map’s language is international. In the global orienteering of the world, it is important to understand how a map is drawn. International Orienteering Federation (IOF) has developed an international standard for map drawing.  

The sprint norm

Urban maps and park maps are drawn based on this standard. It is generally called “the sprint norm”. It is used for orienteering in sprint.

School maps are drawn in the sprint norm (ISSOM). Usually you draw sprint maps in the scale of 1: 4 000 or 1: 5 000. The school maps are drawn in the scale of 1: 1 000-1: 2 000. The advantage of this is that you can draw more details on a school map.

Colours

An orienteering map in the forest is usually drawn in five or six colours. Sprint maps and school maps have a few more shades of the basic colours:

Explanation ISOM and ISSOM

ISOM: International Specification for Orienteering Maps

ISSOM: International Specification for Sprint Orienteering Maps

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