Blank US states map maker
The US states map maker hands you all 50 states as a blank map to fill in. Click a state to paint it, name each colour in the legend, and save the picture as a PNG. Washington DC can be switched on as its own marker, and county lines can be drawn over the states.
Also known as: blank us map, us map maker, editable us map, color the 50 states, usa map chart.
Free. No account needed. Export a PNG.
The states you can colour
Every state on the blank map, with the postal code the editor uses for it.
- Alabama AL
- Alaska AK
- Arizona AZ
- Arkansas AR
- California CA
- Colorado CO
- Connecticut CT
- Delaware DE
- Florida FL
- Georgia GA
- Hawaii HI
- Idaho ID
- Illinois IL
- Indiana IN
- Iowa IA
- Kansas KS
- Kentucky KY
- Louisiana LA
- Maine ME
- Maryland MD
- Massachusetts MA
- Michigan MI
- Minnesota MN
- Mississippi MS
- Missouri MO
- Montana MT
- Nebraska NE
- Nevada NV
- New Hampshire NH
- New Jersey NJ
- New Mexico NM
- New York NY
- North Carolina NC
- North Dakota ND
- Ohio OH
- Oklahoma OK
- Oregon OR
- Pennsylvania PA
- Rhode Island RI
- South Carolina SC
- South Dakota SD
- Tennessee TN
- Texas TX
- Utah UT
- Vermont VT
- Virginia VA
- Washington WA
- West Virginia WV
- Wisconsin WI
- Wyoming WY
How to make a blank US states map
- Open the blank US map. Pick USA in the map picker and all fifty states appear unpainted. Leave county lines off for a clean states map, or turn them on when the point of the map is finer than a whole state.
- Decide what the colours mean. Add a legend entry per category and label it in plain words. Two or three colours read best at a glance; past about six the map stops being readable and a table would say it better.
- Paint the states. Click a state to fill it. Use the fill-the-rest action to colour every state you did not touch, which is how a "no data" or "none of the above" category is done in one go rather than fifty clicks.
- Label, export, share. Switch on the state codes if the map will be read closely, crop the view to the lower 48 if Alaska and Hawaii are not part of the story, then export a PNG or publish the map for a link.
What you can do
- All 50 states as separate clickable shapes.
- Washington DC as its own marker, switched on when the map needs it.
- County lines as an overlay on the states map, for detail without switching to a county map.
- Interstate highways, rivers, lakes and major cities as optional overlays.
- State postal codes printed on the map, on or off, in a colour you choose.
- Flat colours or stripe, dot and checkerboard patterns for categories that must survive greyscale.
- A legend you write and drag where you want it.
- Narrow the map to a few states, so a New England or a West Coast map crops to fit.
- A full-size PNG at the end, with no watermark and no limit on how many maps you make.
Make your own blank US states map
Election and poll maps
Colour states by who won, by margin, or by which way a poll is leaning, then republish the same map as results come in. The legend carries the party names so the picture stands alone in a post.
Laws and policy by state
Legal, illegal, legal with conditions. Three colours and a pattern for the middle case makes a policy map that people can read in one second and argue about for an hour.
Coverage, shipping and territory
Where you deliver, which states a licence covers, which region a rep looks after. Turn the state codes on for these, because a working map gets read closely rather than glanced at.
Sports and college conferences
Conference footprints, franchise territory, who is left in the bracket. One colour per conference and the overlaps stop being an argument.
Regional differences worth a map
Soda against pop, what counts as the Midwest, barbecue styles, the accent line. These are the maps that travel, and they need nothing but the fifty shapes and a legend.
Other map makers
Common questions
Does the map include Washington DC?
DC is not one of the fifty state shapes, because at map scale it is too small to click. There is a switch that puts it on as its own marker next to the map, so it can carry a colour like any state.
Can I show county lines on a states map?
Yes. County lines are an overlay, so the states stay the clickable shapes and the counties are drawn on top as detail. If you want to colour individual counties instead, use the county map maker.
Can I make a map of just a few states?
Yes. Choose the states you want and the map crops to them, which is how a Pacific Northwest or a Deep South map is made without the rest of the country taking up the frame.
Can I put labels on the states?
Yes. Labels are switched on with one toggle and print the two-letter postal code inside each state (CA, TX, NY), which is what fits legibly at map size. You choose the label colour, and the full state names are listed further up this page.
Can I put a picture inside a state?
Yes. A state can hold an image clipped to its outline as well as a flat colour, which is how a map of "one thing per state" gets made. You can also drop images loosely on top of the map and place them by hand.
Will the map look right on a phone?
You can set the crop for a wide screen and for a narrow one separately, so the map that shows up in a feed on a phone is framed for that shape rather than being the desktop version shrunk until the labels vanish.
Is it free, and do I need an account?
It is free and no account is needed. The map you are working on stays in this browser, and publishing is optional: exporting a PNG never asks you to sign in.
What size is the exported image?
A full-size PNG of the map as you cropped it, with the legend included and no watermark, which is large enough to print or to post without it going soft.