ArcGIS Data Appliance: OpenStreetMap Vector Basemaps supports localizing select map labels into the languages listed below. The default map displays a localized view of the world (local language in each country). Localization is another form of basemap customization. As with other customization, there are two main ways to create a style for customization: add a style to the map in Map Viewer Classic or copy a root.json style from the USB flash drive. Review the information in the previous section on how to customize OSM Vector Basemap styles.
Localization changes the labels on the map for a few small-scale features when the data supports it. Localize the map by changing the "text-field" value of the map style's resources\styles\root.json file. Use the corresponding codes for the language you want to display. It is also recommended that you change all "text-font" to an Arial Unicode font ("Arial Unicode MS Regular" or "Arial Unicode MS Bold") to allow all glyphs to display on the map or apply the Unicode font as part of a fallback font stack. After the localization changes are applied to your JSON, validate the JSON using JSONLint or a similar tool, and update or upload the new localized map style as previously detailed in this help document. The edits can also be applied on the JSON through the ArcGIS Vector Tile Style Editor.
As noted above, the default map views labels in the local language as supported by the data. If you want to have an English-label map, follow the instructions below and assign the appropriate layers to use the "en" code.
Languages and codes supported in ArcGIS Data Appliance 2025
The following language codes are supported in ArcGIS Data Appliance 2025: OSM Vector Basemaps:
Note:
The codes for Chinese and Portuguese are different from Esri Vector Basemaps.
| Language | Code |
|---|---|
Arabic | ar |
Bosnian | bs |
Bulgarian | bg |
Catalan | ca |
Chinese (Hong Kong) | zh_hant |
Chinese (Simplified) | zh_hans |
Chinese (Taiwan) | zh_hant |
Croatian | hr |
Czech | cs |
Danish | da |
Dutch | nl |
English | en |
Estonian | et |
Finnish | fi |
French | fr |
German | de |
Greek | el |
Hebrew | he |
Hungarian | hu |
Indonesian | id |
Italian | it |
Japanese | ja |
Korean | ko |
Latvian | lv |
Lithuanian | lt |
Norwegian | no |
Polish | pl |
Portuguese (Brazil) | pt_br |
Portuguese (Portugal) | pt_pt |
Romanian | ro |
Russian | ru |
Serbian | sr |
Slovak | sk |
Slovenian | sl |
Spanish | es |
Swedish | sv |
Thai | th |
Turkish | tr |
Ukrainian | uk |
Vietnamese | vi |
Features supported for localization
The following features can have their "text-field" values changed to support these languages. The map labels that can be localized are primarily features displayed at small scale. At large scale, the default JSON labels the map in local language supported by the data "{_name}". Using a text editor, find each "id" name and change its "text-field" value accordingly.
Small scale features
The default JSON for these features is "text-field": "{_name}". Listed below are the six "id" fields in the worldtopomap style JSON available for localization when the data supports it at primarily small scales. Other Esri OSM styles may have all or fewer of these features.
For example, to display the map in Japanese, the JSON for each of these features changes "text-field": "{_name}" to "text-field": "{name_ja}", for French, "text-field": "{name_fr}", and so on. The leading underscore is removed when applying a localized language code to Esri OSM map styles.
- "capital"
- "place (high importance)"
- "administrative label/country"
- "administrative label/state"
- "administrative label/county level 5"
- "administrative label/county level 6"
Other features
There are other features on the map with "text-field": "{_name}" in the JSON file. These features do not support localization; do not change their JSON code. Only those in the list above are supported.
Changing the font
It is recommended that you change the fonts to Arial Unicode MS (bold or regular), especially for languages like Chinese, Cyrillic, Japanese, or Arabic. Esri OpenStreetMap styles can have different default fonts. For example, the default font for Blueprint style is Architect's Daughter. For the light gray canvas style, the default fonts are in the Noto Sans family. Refer to the font list in the ArcGIS Data Appliance: Esri Vector Basemap Reference Document (v2) PDF in the Additional resources topic for complete details. Change the fonts to "text-font" : ["Arial Unicode MS Regular"]. Fonts that are bold by default can be changed to "text-font" : ["Arial Unicode MS Bold"]. There is no italic font in the Arial Unicode family.
Additional JSON edits for Arabic language maps
To ensure that Arabic glyphs appear correctly on the map, either set the text-spacing setting to 0 (zero) or completely remove the "text-letter-spacing" style attribute from the root.json file. JSON styles may display this attribute as follows:
"text-letter-spacing" : 0.05,
Or the style may have more complex syntax such as the following:
"text-letter-spacing" : { "stops" : [[4, 0.1], [8, 0.18]] }
Either change these to "text-letter-spacing" : 0, or remove the lines completely. Be sure to validate any root.json before updating the file on your portal.