A readable map draws road classes differently. Motorways use thick lines, primary roads are a little thinner, and residential streets recede into fine texture. Your eye can move from the city-wide network down to a neighborhood.
Cartographers call this road hierarchy. Without it, road lines compete at the same weight and the network becomes hard to read.
Inkroads renders five classes of roads, each with distinct visual weight.
The five road classes
Motorways and highways
Motorways use the thickest lines. The class includes interstate highways, ring roads, and urban expressways that cross the city or divide regions.
In Los Angeles, freeways cut across the urban grid and dominate a wide view. In Moscow, ring roads form concentric circles around the center.
Primary roads
Primary roads include major through-streets and arterials. They use thinner lines than motorways but remain prominent between neighborhoods.
Primary roads often expose a city's planning approach. Barcelona's Eixample has a regular grid with chamfered corners, while London's high streets radiate from the City.
Secondary roads
Secondary roads carry local traffic through neighborhoods. They add detail between the stronger primary lines.
Tertiary and residential streets
Tertiary and residential streets use the finest lines. They form the crosshatch of city blocks, suburban cul-de-sacs, and narrow old-town lanes.
At wide zoom, residential streets merge into texture. At neighborhood zoom, they separate into individual lines. Compare the tight medieval grid of Florence with the broad gaps between streets in the suburbs of Phoenix.
Paths and pedestrian ways
Inkroads treats footpaths, cycling paths, and pedestrian streets as a separate layer. Turn it on for parks, waterfronts, and pedestrian networks in cities such as Amsterdam or Copenhagen.
Themes with distinct road classes
Themes show road classes with different degrees of clarity. The clearest combine line weight with separate colors or brightness levels.
Solarized Light assigns a distinct value to each road class, making motorways, primary roads, and residential streets easy to separate.
Blueprint stays within a white-on-blue color family but uses enough variation in line weight to resemble a technical drawing.
Noir and Tokyo Night use brightness variation. Motorways are brightest, followed by primary and secondary roads, with residential streets faintest. Those brightness steps resemble a city photographed from space at night.
Pastel Dream and Lavender flatten the hierarchy on purpose. Road classes remain present, but the small differences produce a softer texture.
Layer controls and road visibility
Inkroads lets you show or hide roads as a group. The selected theme and zoom level determine how each road class is drawn.
Roads only, everything else off. With parks, water, and buildings hidden, the road network becomes line art. Dark themes such as Noir and Dracula turn the roads into bright lines on empty space.
Closer view. Zoom in until residential streets separate cleanly. Check the preview at the size you plan to buy before ordering.
All roads plus water. This shows how roads cross or follow water in New York, Istanbul, and Budapest.
For more on how layer choices affect the final composition, the minimalist map design guide goes deeper.
Zoom level and road detail
Zoom level and road hierarchy interact in important ways:
Wide zoom (city scale): Motorways and primary roads remain distinct while the finer classes merge into texture. Use this for the overall city form.
Medium zoom (district scale): Primary and secondary roads stay distinct while residential streets add texture.
Close zoom (neighborhood scale): Each road class remains visible and residential streets dominate. Older, irregular networks in Tokyo, Rome, and Marrakech have plenty of detail at this scale.
Use a wide view when the full city matters. For a neighborhood you lived in, zoom closer and let the residential streets carry the detail.
Our best cities for map art has zoom recommendations for specific cities. Use the live preview to compare them before generating.