What you can style on the map

The map features you can customize are arranged in a hierarchy, and each map feature has one or more style elements that you can customize. Most top-level features have one or more child map features. You have several options when customizing map styles:

• Inherit from the base map style: If you don't customize a style element for a map feature, it inherits the default style from the base map.

• Inherit from parents: Customize a style element on a parent map feature, to have all un-customized child map features below inherit the styles from their parent.

• Override the parent style: Customize a style element on a child map feature to override the parent style for that element.

• Customize zoom levels: For some map features, you can customize style elements for different zoom levels. For details, see Style zoom levels .

What you can style for each map feature

Map features can have one or more of the following style elements that you can customize, depending on the type of map feature:

• Visibility: Whether to show or hide this feature on the map.

• Fill color: Fill color for polygons and polylines.

• Stroke color: Outline color for polygons and polylines.

• Stroke width: Thickness of the outline for polygons and polylines. Results may vary depending on the zoom level. If you don't want an outline, set the Stroke color to be the same as the Fill color, or set the Stroke width to 0.

• Icon color: Fill color for the icons.

• Text fill color: Fill color for text labels.

• Text stroke color: Outline color for text labels.

Map feature visibility

When you hide map features or make them transparent, you may expose boundary inaccuracies. Map feature boundaries are not always precise, but are adjusted to look correct when all layers are visible. To learn more about how map layers affect each other, see Manage styles that overlap .

There are two ways to show or hide map features: visibility and opacity.

Visibility

To either display or hide a map feature on your map, use the Visibilitystyle element. For more details, see Filter which map features to display .

Opacity

You can also make a map feature transparent by adjusting the opacity of the following style elements: Fill color, Stroke color, Text fill color, and Text stroke color.

When you adjust the opacity of a map feature, its appearance depends on the map features underneath. To avoid unexpected style changes, set a custom style for all overlapping features.

Polygons and Polylines

For map feature types that are represented with a shape, such as Beach, Country, and Town square, or a line, such as Railway track, Highway, and Trail, you can typically style the following elements: Visibility, Fill color, Stroke color, and Stroke width.

Stroke color and Stroke width customizations are not availablefor the following map features:

• Political map features: Their style conveys meaning on the map, such as indicating the type of territory. The political map features are Country, Border, State or province, and Sublocality.

• 3D style buildings.

Icons and Text Labels

For map feature types that are fully or partially represented with a label, such as Point of interest or Transportation, you can usually style the following elements: Visibility, Icon color, Text fill color, and Text stroke color.

Map feature hierarchy

These tables for the top level map features show what child map features are available under each.

Point of interest
Emergency	Fire Hospital Pharmacy Police
Entertainment	Arts Casino Cinema Historic Museum Theme park Tourist attraction
Food and drink	Bar Cafe Restaurant Winery
Landmark
Lodging
Recreation	Beach Boating Fishing Golf course Hot spring Nature reserve Park Peak Sports complex Sports field Trailhead Zoo
Retail	Grocery Shopping
Service	ATM Bank Car rental EV charging Gas station Parking lot Post office Rest stop Restroom
Transit	Airport
Other	Bridge Cemetery Government Library Military Place of worship School Town square

Political
Country
Border
Reservation
State or province
City
Sublocality
Neighborhood
Land parcel

Natural
† Land cover map features are rough approximations based on satellite imagery colors and may not accurately reflect real-world conditions.
Continent
Archipelago
Island
Land	Land cover †	Crops Dry crops Forest Ice Sand Shrub Tundra
Water	Ocean Lake River Other
Base