What you can style on the map

Select platform: Android iOS JavaScript Web Service

The map features you can customize are arranged in a hierarchy, and each map feature has one or more style elements that you can customize. Most top-level features have one or more child map features. You have several options when customizing map styles:

  • Inherit from the base map style: If you don't customize a style element for a map feature, it inherits the default style from the base map.

  • Inherit from parents: Customize a style element on a parent map feature, to have all un-customized child map features below inherit the styles from their parent.

  • Override the parent style: Customize a style element on a child map feature to override the parent style for that element.

  • Customize zoom levels: For some map features, you can customize style elements for different zoom levels. For details, see Style zoom levels.

What you can style for each map feature

Map features can have one or more of the following style elements that you can customize, depending on the type of map feature:

  • Visibility: Whether to show or hide this feature on the map. For details, see Display or hide map features.

  • Fill color: Fill color for polygons and polylines.

  • Stroke color: Outline color for polygons and polylines.

  • Stroke width: Thickness of the outline for polygons and polylines. Results may vary depending on the zoom level. If you don't want an outline, set the Stroke color to be the same as the Fill color, or set the Stroke width to 0.

  • Icon color: Fill color for the icons.

  • Text fill color: Fill color for text labels.

  • Text stroke color: Outline color for text labels.

Display or hide map features

If there are map features that you want to either display or hide on your map, use the Visibility style element as follows:

  1. In the style editor, select the map feature.

  2. Under Visibility, the visibility is controlled by an eye icon toggle. Select the eye icon to enable visibility selection, which turns the icon blue. The default basemap visibility is shown in gray.

    Blue visibility toggle which shows that the toggle is set.

  3. Select the icon again to toggle the visibility between off and on.

Polygons and Polylines

For map feature types that are represented with a shape, such as Beach, Country, and Town square, or a line, such as Railway track, Highway, and Trail, you can typically style the following elements: Visibility, Fill color, Stroke color, and Stroke width.

Polygon styling customization example - for Reservation feature type

Polyline styling customization example - for Highway feature type

Stroke color and Stroke width customizations are not available for the following map features:

  • Political map features: Their style conveys meaning on the map, such as indicating the type of territory. The political map features are Country, Country border, State or province, and Sublocality.

  • 3D style buildings.

Icons and Text Labels

For map feature types that are fully or partially represented with a label, such as Points of interest or Transportation, you can usually style the following elements: Visibility, Icon color, Text fill color, and Text stroke color.

Label text and icon styling customizations example

Map feature hierarchy

These tables for the top level map features show what child map features are available under each.

Points of interest

Emergency Fire
Hospital
Pharmacy
Police
Entertainment Arts
Casino
Cinema
Historic
Museum
Theme park
Tourist attraction
Food and drink Bar
Cafe
Restaurant
Winery
Landmark
Lodging
Recreation Beach
Boating
Fishing
Golf course
Hot spring
Nature reserve
Park
Peak
Sports complex
Sports field
Trailhead
Zoo
Retail Grocery
Shopping
Services ATM
Bank
Car rental
EV charging
Gas station
Parking lot
Post office
Rest stop
Restroom
Transit Airport
Other Bridge
Cemetery
Government
Library
Military
Place of worship
School
Town square

Political

Country
Country border
Reservation
State or province
City
Sublocality
Neighborhood
Land parcel

Infrastructure

Building Commercial
Business corridor
Road network No traffic Pedestrian mall
Trail Paved
Unpaved
Parking aisle
Ramp
Road shield
Road sign
Roads Arterial
Highway
Local
No outlet
Railway track
Transit station Bicycle share
Bus station
Ferry terminal
Funicular station
Gondola station
Monorail
Rail station Subway station
Tram station
Urban area
Natural
Continent
Archipelago
Island
Land cover Vegetation Crops
Dry crops
Forest
Ice
Sand
Shrub
Tundra
Water Ocean
Lake
River
Other
Background