How to make custom map design in MapTiler Cloud

This article will show you how to change the look of any map in MapTiler Cloud. You will learn how to change the colors, language, font, labels, and many other features of your map. All that in a few mouse clicks.

Important notice

Always keep in mind that map styles are a highly subjective topic. What can look good according to someone, does not necessarily have to look good according to someone else. It is recommended to follow general guidelines on how to combine colors and types. You can find some hints e.g. at Carto.

Start creating your map design now

Go to MapTiler Cloud and click on a new map button.

Then select the map which suits the best to your use case. Some of our maps offer several different color versions. You can find here maps for the light and dark modes of your application, and they will still have the same data as the default map for this use case.

Click on customize button.

User-friendly Customize tool

The customize tool is available after you sign in, click on a new map button (in the Maps tab), select the map which fits your use case, and click on customize button.

It will bring you directly to the customize tool, where you can see groups and global settings. In groups, you can adjust the color of the thematic group of layers. By clicking on the color palette, you will get a color selection dialog to define a new color for a selected group. The color selection tool capabilities are operating system-dependent and range from a simple window with color selection and its representation in hex format to complex tools with color-picking options. You can also completely turn off the layer group.

In global settings, you can select the language of the map from more than 50 languages! To include alternative names for non-Latin alphabets. Language selection is also possible for raster tiles.

Define preferred country borders 

and change the font of the map.

All changes can be reverted to the default value using a reset button.

When you are done with the customization, click the Save button and Close to leave Customize tool.
If you would like to adjust individual layers and their appearance during zooming, you can click on advanced editing.

To make your map available for use, click on your custom map and the Publish button, which is the last step. Then your map is available for insertion into your web, used on a web, inside a mobile app, as a static image, or as a WMTS service. This map is now available on My maps, where you have all mentioned services available, you can further Customize it or Delete it.

All changes based on our basic maps done using Customize tool will stay compatible with future versions of MapTiler Cloud.

Build your map design from scratch

You also have the option to build your own map design from scratch either in the graphical user interface or by writing or uploading GeoJSON code.

Conclusion

There are several ways how to edit a map style in the MapTiler Cloud. Each of them offers a different level of customization tools, according to the preference and skill of the user. MapTiler Style Editor offers advanced tools for editing map styles, including the GeoJSON editor.

Useful links

Pinterest - amazing map styles
OpenMapTiles - Open Map Styles