Discussion: Legends on Orienteering Maps?

Is there a rule one way or another about putting a legend on an orienteering map in the US?
I ask because I have long since dropped the practice and instead make separate legends available to the pre-registered and at registration.

Rule? No, there's nothing in the OUSA Rules of Competition, if that's what you mean, and if there were, it would apply only to National events or whatever they're called (A-meets).

In this modern age of maps that are custom-cropped for the course, it appears that for local events we have moved beyond the days of legends, credits, titles, locator maps, borders, etc., or maybe there will be a truncated version of some of those things. The only really essential things are north lines and a statement of scale/contour interval, and I've even seen some maps where those are missing.

In the days of offset-printed maps, I produced a few without legends, and that's commonplace in Europe. If you've got separate legends to hand out, you're definitely good. But know your audience. If your maps are going to be distributed beyond orienteers (e.g. to park users), then including a legend is probably a good idea.

Even for local events it's nice to include North lines and scales (unless there's a particular training reason to leave them off). Like J-J, I've also been to events where they were absent-mindedly (I think) left off on a cropped map.

I put my name on all maps I make.

QR code as link to club/OUSA website with a up-to-date legend and introduction to O?

... and a free race start coupon!

I advocate for maps with club and national logos, and with "good looking" graphic design, more to give a professional appearance than for any other reason. Separate legends are fine. OCIN does tend to print WYO with legends when it's not difficult.

I usually lay the map out with a legend and full marginal information and try to get it printed on at least the beginner course maps. Don't worry as much about cropping it off of maps for those on higher level courses.

Printing scale and contour interval on orienteering maps is essential. Period.

Yup. But I occasionally see them left off.

I think there are acceptable exceptions, like for very small/confined spaces (a gym, for example) or for very new orienteers. An 8-year old doing a proper white-level course isn't going to care about the scale and shouldn't need to worry about it. Also, it should be 1:paper size, so it might be something really weird like 1:4837. How useful would that even be?

We do a lot of map cropping for local events. I usually do some "partial map" in OCAD, if possible leaving blank space for:
map name, scale, contour interval
club and OUSA logos, website
copyright
mapping dates and credits if space permits, sometimes an abbreviated version
any landowner-required text, notes about portions being private, access with permission only, etc.
enough blank space or extra parts of map for the control descriptions
legend, if space permits, may need to be covered by control descriptions for the advanced courses.

We have a supply of quarter-page loose legend , that we make available when a legend is not printed on the map. We also have full page IOF control description keys for advanced runners who haven't completely learned them.

How many use map cropping and enlarging to get the largest scale possible for their courses? I have an event coming up in November where the map is in 1:10,000 but advanced and intermediate courses will run with 1:7,500 copies and novices 1:5,000. Of course the map title and scale will fall off the printed maps.
I'm taking it as being important that the North arrows and the scale should still be placed on the cropped maps? anything else as a bare minimum? Some of the stuff Mike says he puts on I don't even put on the full map. O-USA logo? Why?

Club website is something that is worth getting on there.

OUSA is where your insurance coverage is from, so it's nice to credit the federation. I don't think it's needed on a cropped partial map but north lines (with arrow) and scale or scale bar are important.

Control numbers oriented to N are also critical. Even when maps' N lines are at an angle the control numbers need to be at the same angle. (ISOM2017 p33, #704)

The map is a valuable marketing device, so it should look nice and have information about where to find out more (e.g. club website)

@Gord - Some of our events are on holiday weekends, we often get out-of-town guests. Giving the OUSA logo AND WEBSITE is a marketing contact beyond our local club. And when we do exhibitions at large running races, etc, there are often out-of-towners - its a quick way to point them to where they can potentially find a club closer to home. Agree with Cristina - its definitely a marketing tool.

Of course the map title and scale will fall off the printed maps. 

So you're going to add a scale (ratio, not bar) as text with the courses?

Statement on non-discrimination policy

For large maps I omit Title, North Arrow, Legend, Scale and scale bar. These are added as jpgs or text in CONDES. Like tRicky, I put my name on the map, apparently so that planners know where to paste the control descriptions :(