Highlight countries on a map
Click the countries you want to pick out, choose a colour and download the map. Free, no sign-up.
Some maps have a short message: these countries. The ones a charity works in, the markets a company has entered, the countries in a news story, the places a team has staff. The editor above opens on the highlighted countries template: France, Brazil, India, Kenya, Japan and Australia in orange on a pale grey world. Click a country to add it, click one of the six to take it off, and download the map.
When a highlight is the right map
A highlight works when the countries are a set with nothing to rank or sort: the countries an organisation operates in, the countries a sales team covers, the stops of a touring exhibition, the countries a writer has reported from. One strong colour on a quiet world reads in a second, on a slide, a web page or a printed report.
It also suits questions. A teacher can highlight six countries and ask the class to name them; a quiz night can show one highlighted country per round. When the countries need more than one colour, because each colour means something different, use a colour-coded map with a legend instead; and when the colours should follow numbers, a choropleth.
Picking and styling the countries
Click a country to highlight it and click it again to take it off. The card beside the map works on the whole set at once: Show names labels every highlighted country, and Deselect clears them all. The place list on the left finds a country by name, which helps with small ones, and its Selected view lists only the countries you have picked, so you can check the set before you download.
To start from a group, choose it from Map of in the place list: the G20, the EU, NATO or another, and its members are picked out for you. Keep the rest of the world quiet. Minimal, the style above, leaves the land pale and the borders thin; Colours in the toolbar sets the land, the sea and the Selected colour of the highlights by hand if your page has its own palette.
How to do it in MapMaker
- Click an example country to take it off, then click your own countries to add them.
- Check the set with the Selected view of the place list.
- Set the highlight colour with Colours in the toolbar, and choose Show names on the card if the reader needs the names.
- Add a title on the Canvas tab of More.
- Choose Download and save a PNG for a slide or a web page.
Where to go next
The highlighted countries template is the starting map above. For several colours with a legend, try the colour-coded map maker, and for a group, start from its own page, such as the map of the G20, which opens with the members already picked out.
Questions people ask
How do I highlight several countries at once?
Click each country in turn: it joins the highlighted set in the highlight colour. To pick out a whole group, such as the G20 or the EU, choose it from Map of in the place list and its members are selected for you.
Can I show the names of only the highlighted countries?
Yes. The card beside the map acts on the whole highlighted set, so Show names labels every highlighted country at once. The rest stay unnamed, so the map points the reader straight at the ones that matter.
How do I take a country off the map's highlights?
Click it again and it goes back to the plain land colour, while the others stay highlighted. To start again with a plain world, use Clear all in the place list or click the sea. Undo steps back through your last changes.
Can I change the highlight colour?
Yes. Open Colours in the toolbar and change Selected colour: every highlighted country follows, and the ones you click later take the new colour too. One colour for the whole set keeps the map reading as one group.