A method and system for generating a representation of a terrain. The method of generating a representation of a terrain comprises the steps of selecting a set of colors, the colors comprise at least a plurality of colors, determining a minimum terrain elevation, and determining a maximum terrain elevation. A plurality of terrain bands is computed based in part on the set of colors, the minimum terrain elevation, and the maximum terrain elevation. At least one of the limited set of colors is assigned to each of the plurality of the plurality of terrain bands. The representation of the terrain is generated one of the limited set of colors.