Customizing map styles

A map style is the look and feel of an Embedded Map: the base map underneath, the color and width of the course line, the start and finish markers, the points of interest, and the elevation chart. Every Embedded Map has one default style and up to three alternates its viewers can switch between. For choosing those on the map itself, see Creating an Embedded Map.

Styles belong to you, not to a single map. One style can be used by any number of your Embedded Maps and map templates, so a change to the style shows up on all of them.

The styles you start with

The first time you open Embedded Maps, we create four styles for you: Outdoors, Satellite, Streets, and HelloDrifter thematic. New Embedded Maps use Outdoors by default. These are ordinary styles, so you can edit, rename, or delete them like any you make yourself.

Finding the style builder

From your profile sidebar, go to Embedded maps. Beneath it you’ll find Map styles, which lists every style you have, and New map style, which opens a blank builder.

The list shows each style with the Embedded Maps that use it as their default and as an alternate. Beside each name are three actions:

• Edit (pencil) opens the style in the builder.
• Clone (two squares) makes a copy called “<name> (copy)”. This is the easiest way to start a new style: clone the preset closest to what you want and adjust it, rather than filling in a blank form.
• Delete (cross) removes the style. You can’t delete a style that an Embedded Map still uses. Switch those maps to another style first. If it’s the default style of a map template, delete that template first.

The builder has no live preview yet. To see a change, save the style and open an Embedded Map that uses it.

General

Name [required]. Viewers see the name when they switch between styles on your map, so a short, descriptive one (“Trail – dark”) works better than a long one.

Map

Style. The base map drawn under your course: Outdoors (terrain shading and trails, a good default for most courses), Streets, Light, Dark, Satellite, or Satellite-streets (satellite imagery with road and place labels on top). Pick the course colors below to suit it. A line that stands out on Light can disappear on Satellite.

Points of interest

• Shape. The marker drawn for each point of interest: Standard (a classic pin), Chubby (a wider pin), Circle, or Ring. The preview beside the menu shows the shape only, not your colors.
• Show icon. Whether to draw the point’s icon (water, aid station, and so on) inside the marker.
• Default color. The marker fill. A color you pick for an individual point of interest when editing a course overrides this. The elevation chart also uses this color for its point-of-interest “blips”.
• Outline color, Outline width (0–12 pixels), and Outline opacity. The ring around each marker. A light outline helps markers stand out on dark or busy base maps.

Route

The Route card is split into groups.

Path styles set the course line itself:

• Default path style. Normal (solid), Dashed, or Dotted.
• Color, Width (0–8 pixels), and Opacity.

Surface detail styles only apply when an Embedded Map has surface details turned on and surface data exists for the course (see Creating an Embedded Map). With surface details showing, the line is recolored section by section:

• Narrow path style. The line style for narrow sections such as singletrack. Dotted by default, so trail sections read differently from roads at a glance.
• Dirt color, Gravel color, and Paved color. The line color for each surface. Pick three colors that are easy to tell apart on your base map.

Outline styles set an optional border drawn under the course line: Outline color, Outline width (2–12 pixels), and Outline opacity. The outline should be wider than the line or it won’t show. A contrasting outline (for example, a yellow line with a dark outline) keeps the course readable over satellite imagery. To turn the outline off, set its opacity to zero.

Start marker, Finish marker, and Animation marker are the circles at the start, at the finish, and the one that travels along the course during the course animation. Each has:

• Color and Opacity.
• Radius. 2–12 pixels.
• Outline width (1–5 pixels) and Outline color.

The presets use green for the start and red for the finish. Keeping to that convention helps viewers read the course direction without a legend.

3D elevation chart

Color and Opacity of the elevation profile projected onto the map when the Embedded Map’s 3D elevation feature is on. A partly transparent color (around 60–70%) lets the map show through.

Chart

These settings style the elevation chart along the bottom of the map.

• Line color. The elevation profile line.
• Fill color. The area under the line.
• Include fill. Turn this off to draw the line alone.

Saving

Click Save map style at the bottom of the page. Colors can be picked from the swatch or typed as a hex code like #0066ff or #06f. If a value is out of range or a color isn’t a valid hex code, the field is highlighted and nothing is saved until it’s fixed.

Because a style is shared, saving updates every Embedded Map and map template that uses it. To try something out without changing a live map, clone the style first, point one map at the copy, and switch back if you don’t like it.

The style builder is still being developed, and we’d like to hear what’s missing. Email [email protected].