Auto-Match Drawing Color to Marker

Manually assigning colors to drawings can become time-consuming—especially when managing many drawing layers or frequently updating them.

To simplify this, Mapme offers a powerful solution that allows drawings to automatically inherit colors from their associated location markers. This dynamic color sync ensures consistency and reduces manual work.

How It Works

Drawings can automatically inherit their color from the associated location. This color is determined either by:

• The custom marker color of the location (if set), or
• The color of the category assigned to the location (if no custom marker is used)

As a result, drawing colors can be updated via:

• Mapme Editor
• The Import feature
• Map to Sheets
• The API

Use Case Example

Imagine a map showing cannabis legality by U.S. state, categorized from “Fully Legal” to “Illegal”.
Instead of manually assigning a color to each state’s drawing:

• You can import a file that includes all the states and their category assignments.
• Mapme will then automatically assign the correct color to each state drawing based on the associated location’s category.

👉 See live example

How to Enable Dynamic Drawing Colors

1. In the Editor, go to Drawings > Advanced Options
2. Enable “Auto-Match Drawing Color to Marker”

Setting Up Associated Locations

For each drawing, create a corresponding location marker:

• For example, on a world map, you would have both a France border drawing and a France location marker
• We recommend using matching names for both the drawing and its location marker (e.g., “France” for both) to maintain clarity, though this isn’t required
• If you prefer to display only the colored drawing without a visible marker, set the marker display to “Hide” in the location settings

Linking Drawings to Locations

1. Open the relevant drawing layer
2. Click Manage Interactivity
3. Under Location, choose the matching location from the dropdown (e.g., select “France” for the France drawing)

Drawing Color Rules

• If the associated location has a custom marker, the drawing will use its background color
• If no custom marker is set, the drawing will inherit the category color
• If no category or marker is set, the drawing will not be displayed on the map

Templates Available

To help you get started, we offer ready-to-use templates for:

• World Countries
• U.S. States

👉 Contact support to have these templates added to your account.