Physical maps usually show differences in elevation through hypsometric tints, or variations in color.

Some cartographers have suggested that hypsometric tints are often used as decoration, rather than for informational purposes:

Then come the highly detailed Landscape Maps, which combine shaded relief and hypsometric tints or land use imagery.

It is often considered to include the graphic representation of the landform on a map by a variety of techniques, including contour lines, hypsometric tints, and relief shading.

When contours are used with hypsometric tints on a small-scale map that includes mountains and flatter low-lying areas, it is common to have smaller intervals at lower elevations so that detail is shown in all areas.

Another familiar example of pseudo color is the encoding of elevation using hypsometric tints in physical relief maps, where negative values (below sea level) are usually represented by shades of blue, and positive values by greens and browns.

Among his numerous publications, particularly worthy of note is the series of maps of Great Britain reduced from the Ordnance Survey to scales of inch and inch to 1 mile, with relief shown by contour lines and hypsometric tints.

John Bartholomew Junior was credited with having pioneered the use of hypsometric tints or layer colouring on maps in which low ground is shown in shades of green and higher ground in shades of brown, then eventually purple and finally white.

Bartholomew is best known for the development of colour contouring (or hypsometric tints), the system of representing altitudes on a graduated colour scale, with areas of high altitude in shades of brown and areas of low altitude in shades of green.

During the book's most memorable section, Alva's yearning to encompass the world leads her to Pig Mikel, a tattoo artist who decorates her entire body, from neck to ankle and along each arm up to the wrist, with a map of the globe in the hypsometric tints, which indicate height above and below sea level.