After quite a bit of digging online I was able to find a solution to this common issue in Open Layers and its supported map layers.
The issue I had was specifically tied to OpenStreetMaps. I found that it was necessary that I explicitly define all resolutions with the necessary zoomOffset in the OSM layer constructor. Using the the constructor below I was able to create the layer as I liked. var osm_wms = new OpenLayers.Layer.OSM("OSM", null, { isBaseLayer: true, wrapDateLine: true, displayInLayerSwitcher: true, zoomOffset: 4, resolutions: [9783.939618750003, 4891.969809375002, 2445.984904687501, 1222.99245234375, 611.4962261718752, 305.7481130859376, 152.8740565429688, 76.4370282714844, 38.2185141357422, 19.1092570678711, 9.55462853393555, 4.77731426696777, 2.38865713348389, 1.19432856674194] }); Resolutions can manually be added by starting with 1.19432856674194 and adding multiples of two. I then set the desired map zoom and center without issue. Just thought I would add a quick update, since layer extent/zoom level seems to be a common source of confusion for those new to OpenLayers. -- View this message in context: http://osgeo-org.1560.x6.nabble.com/Setting-layer-maxResolution-and-numZoomLevels-tp5044883p5046405.html Sent from the OpenLayers Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ Users mailing list us...@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/openlayers-users