Map maker
A map maker for colouring things in rather than plotting data. Pick a base map, click the countries, states or counties you want to fill, write the legend in your own words, and download the finished map as a PNG. It runs in the browser and no account is needed.
Also known as: map creator, map chart maker, color a map online, custom map maker, free map maker.
Free. No account needed. Export a PNG.
Every map you can start from
What a click paints, and how many shapes you get, on each of the starting maps.
| Starting map | What you colour |
|---|---|
| World map maker | 206 countries |
| US states map maker | 50 states |
| US county map maker | 3,142 counties |
| Europe map maker | 50 countries |
| Canada map maker | 13 provinces and territories |
| Tectonic plates | 52 plates |
| Ancient Rome | 53 Roman provinces |
| Solar system | 24 planets, moons and other bodies |
| Animal cell | 16 organelles |
| Pangea | 11 proto-continents |
| Earth's layers | 10 layers |
| Any country, opened up into its own regions | 221 countries carry their own subdivision data |
Maps people make about themselves
The same editor, set up for the three maps people ask for by name.
- States I'd live in map. A US map coloured by where you would actually move, not where you have been.
- States I have visited map. The same fifty states, coloured by the ones you have actually set foot in.
- Countries I have visited map. The world version: countries you have been to, lived in or only changed planes in.
How to make a map
- Pick the base map. The editor opens on a picker holding 11 base maps, plus the option to build one from whichever countries you choose. What you pick decides what a click paints: a country, a state, a province or a county.
- Set the colours and their labels. Add one legend entry per category and write what it means. The legend is part of the exported image, so a map that made sense to you at 11pm still makes sense to someone who sees it cold.
- Click to fill. Every click paints a region in the selected colour. Fill everything you have not touched in one action for a baseline category, and use a pattern instead of a colour where two categories would otherwise look alike.
- Export or publish. Download a PNG at full size, or publish and get a page with the map on it, a preview card for chat apps, and a place in the community maps below.
What you can do
- Countries, states, provinces and counties, from a world map down to 3,142 US counties.
- Build a custom map from any set of countries, and open a country into its own internal regions.
- Flat colours or stripe, dot and checkerboard patterns, so categories survive a greyscale print.
- A legend you write, drag and resize, included in the export.
- Region abbreviations on or off, in a colour you choose.
- Optional overlays: rivers, lakes, major cities, grid lines, US interstates and county lines.
- Drop your own images onto the map and place them where you want.
- Globe mode for a rotatable 3D version of a world map.
- Crop the exported view so the map fills the frame on a phone and on a desktop.
- PNG export with no watermark, plus a share link with a preview if you publish.
Make your own map
Results and votes
Elections, referendums, league tables, awards. A filled map is the fastest way to show who went which way, and it reads at thumbnail size in a feed.
Data you found somewhere
Rainfall, prices, broadband speed, how a word is pronounced. Three or four colour bands and a written legend turn a table nobody would read into a picture people argue about.
Where things are
Coverage areas, delivery zones, where a rule applies, where a franchise operates. These maps get read closely, so turn the region codes on and keep the legend plain.
History and worldbuilding
An empire at its height, a migration, a campaign, an invented world laid over real geography. Nothing on the map is fixed except the outlines you start from.
Not geography at all
The same tool colours the solar system, the tectonic plates, the layers of the Earth and an animal cell, which makes it a quiet way to build a labelled diagram for a class.
Common questions
Which maps can I start from?
The list above, with the region pages linked. If none of them is the shape you need, choose the countries you want and the map crops to exactly those.
Is it free?
Yes, and there is no trial, no export limit and no watermark. The site is paid for by the ads around the page rather than by charging for the tool.
Do I need an account?
No. The editor opens straight away and keeps your map in this browser as you work. An account only matters for collecting your published maps on one profile and editing them from another device.
Can I use images on a map?
Yes. You can drop images onto the map and position them, and on the states and countries maps a region can hold a picture as well as a colour. County maps take colours and patterns only, because there are too many shapes for anything else.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. Pan and zoom are touch gestures, painting works with a finger, and the export is the same PNG you would get on a desktop.
Can I change the colours of the map itself?
Yes. The background, the borders and the label colour are all yours to set, and borders can be turned off entirely for a flat look where the fills touch each other with no line between them.
Can I upload my own map to colour in?
Not as a map: the shapes have to come from the built-in sets, because that is what makes each region separately clickable. You can drop your own images on top of a map and place them, which covers most of what people want this for.
What do I get when I publish?
A page with the map, a title and a description, a link that unfurls with a preview image, and a place in the community lists on this site. Publishing is optional: exporting an image never requires it.