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Legend

Legends help users understand the symbology and meaning of your map layers. GOAT automatically displays legends for all visible layers, but you can customize their appearance and add descriptive captions to make your maps more informative.

How to manage layer legends

1
Select your layer and navigate to Layer design Styling Icon and find the Legend section
2
Toggle the Show checkbox to enable or disable the legend display
3
You can add a Caption field explaining the layer's content. The caption will appear below the layer name in the legend list

Legend configuration with caption settings

Custom legend labels for color steps

When using attribute-based styling with a color scale (numeric or custom classification), you can add a custom label to each color step. These labels replace the raw data values in the map legend with human-readable descriptions.

1
Open Layer design Styling Icon and navigate to the Color scale panel under attribute-based styling.
2
Below each color step row you will see a text input with the placeholder Legend label. Type a custom label — for example Low, Medium, or High — to replace the numeric value in the legend.
3
Leave the field empty to show the default numeric value in the legend.

Best practices

  • Use clear, descriptive captions that explain what the layer represents
  • Keep captions concise but informative
  • Disable legends for layers that don't need visual explanation (e.g., reference layers)
  • Review legend visibility to avoid cluttering the map interface