From interactive WEB, static or animated – every project starts with the right mapstyle. In this blogpost we want to guide you through a few of the many mapstyles available in the Mapcreator tool, depending on your projects’ needs. Whether you are looking to add data layers, broadcast your project, have a satellite map or a completely custom mapstyle; we’ve got you covered!
What, how, here?
First things first, what is a mapstyle? A mapstyle is a set of customizations made to the base map, to match certain purposes. For example: a broadcasting mapstyle will have bigger fonts than a real estate one; simply for its broadcasting purposes. In the Mapcreator tool, we offer 16 default mapstyles. Once you are in the tool, your mapstyle can be changed at any stage of your project in the mapstyle settings.
Mapcreator Mapstyle
What better place to start than our very own Mapcreator mapstyle! Just like custom mapstyles provided for clients, we love working with our own mapstyle. Despite what a mapstyle might look like when you open it at first, there are still lots of customizable features. Later in this blog article we will compare various mapstyles to this one, as we consider this to be the ‘’default’’ mapstyle. You can find this same mapstyle, both with different color stories, as Mapcreator: Bright, Opal, Light, Colour, Legacy and Silver.
You are the creative director of your mapstyle of choice when it comes to the amount of data shown and which elements you can show or hide. Look at the Mapceator mapstyle as a blank canvas. From here, you can select or hide items from the elements lists, add layers such as POI’s or earthquake for more data and hill shading or 3D buildings for more depth in your map. In the top bar you can also find our detail level menu, this allows for you to control the map feature density without changing your zoom level.
If you are interested to continue a little bit on map destiny and cartography itself, click here, it’s a short but interesting read!
Below you can see just how different three maps from the very same mapstyle can look, by simply using the detail control level at the lowest and highest density.
Mapcreator Dark
The darkmode for your project. Opposite of the traditional Mapcreator mapstyle; Mapcreator Dark is a base composed of very dark blue and grays. Roads and labels (place names, etc), are white to contrast from the dark map.
One of the ways this mapstyle really comes to life is combined with the wildfire or hotspot layer(s). Due to the dark base, the red yellow and orange wildfire data has an even bigger impact for your readers. It is no secret that a dark color can help bright colors pop. Attract your viewers and your story will be clear in seconds!
Try the slider to see how the Mapcreator Dark makes an impact!
Satellite & Satellite Hybrid
This mapstyles partly speaks for itself; the satellite mapstyle will provide you with… Exactly, a satellite view. But, there is more to it! If you are looking to create an animation showcasing a certain location, we have the best of both worlds. With this layer you can switch within your animation from the satellite to the Mapcreator mapstyle or vice versa.
This mapstyle can also be used to give a real-time walk around or as a static map giving a satellite view of your location of choice. If your project calls for the satellite view but you want your readers to know more about the area; you can also go for the satellite hybrid mapstyle. This mapstyle allows an (editable) overlay displaying roads, railways, place names, road names, road numbers, water names, roads, rails, POI’s and so on.
The mapstyle for your industry
Mapcreator TV
Specifically designed for broadcasting and TV, this mapstyle has various adjustments compared to our default mapstyle. Take for example the font sizes, these are significantly increased. There is also less data visible upfront, there are no roads, POI’s, or place names unless you allow these to be shown from the elements list. Lastly this mapstyle allows for more integrated visual components such as the hillshading.
All these elements make for quick visualizations of locations for your story. Where the font size helps with readability, less data helps with the clarity of your message and the visual components higher the quality of your project, maps for broadcasting have never been easier!
Mapcreator Real Estate
This solution is perfect to show your properties and highlight the area in which these are located. Compared to the default mapstyle, this style has some perks to take your Real Estate projects to another level. Once a street view zoom level is reached, 3d buildings pop up on your map.This really helps (potential) clients to get a feel for the area.
The same goes for POI including bus stops and locations regarding sport / leisure, hospitality and health. From this data you can pick and choose what to show, but by default in this mapstyle all information will be visible. Lastly the street names are slightly smaller compared to the Mapcreator default mapstyle.
Thanks to all these settings, more information can be visible without overwhelming your clients and allow for your mapping projects to have more depth to them.
Custom mapstyle
And now onto our personal favorite! Nothing reflects your brand more than your own custom style. With a custom mapstyle the sky’s the limit. From fonts, colors, zoom level and so on. When we say custom, we mean full design customization. Send us your style guide and our support team will take care of everything for you. Are you interested in this premium feature? Contact our team to talk about the details.
Let’s get started
In this blogpost we covered 6 of the 16 mapstyles available in the tool – but there is so much more to discover. Get started right now and see which style compliments your story or project best!
