Color a Map

Highlight any country, US state, or region with a click. Build a custom color legend, then export as PNG, SVG, or PDF. Free, no sign-up, no watermark — your map never leaves your browser.

How to use the Color a Map tool

Five steps from blank map to finished export — each one takes a few seconds.

1. Pick a base map. Choose World countries, United States, Europe, or one of the six continents. Each is rendered from public-domain Natural Earth or US Census boundary data.
2. Choose a color or define a color group. Pick a fill from the 12-swatch palette or enter a custom hex. For categorical maps (e.g. visited/want/lived), add a labelled color group to the legend.
3. Click any region to fill it. Each country, state, or region is clickable. Click again to remove the fill or reassign it to a different color group.
4. Customize the legend. Add legend entries with custom labels, reorder them, or hide the legend entirely. The legend renders in the exported image alongside the map.
5. Export or share. Download as PNG (high-resolution image), SVG (vector graphic, editable), or PDF (print-ready). Or copy a shareable URL that encodes the entire map state.

Available base maps

Pick a starting base map from four collections. All boundaries come from public-domain Natural Earth (1:50m) and US Census Bureau TIGER/Line files.

Need a printable blank version of any of these? Browse our 110 free printable blank maps — every US state (with counties), every major country, every continent, plus the world. Each available as SVG, PNG, and PDF.

Color a map of any continent — country-by-country guide

Each continent base map opens a different set of coloring projects. Below: what each map covers, the sub-regions inside it, and the most common categorical projects users build. Pick the base map up at the tool — every section here corresponds to a button in the toolbar.

Color a map of Europe (51 countries)

The Europe base map is centred on Germany (10°E) and renders 51 European countries from Iceland in the northwest through the South Caucasus, including Cyprus, Malta, and Russia. By default the frame crops tightly to Western and Central Europe so the EU bloc dominates the view — Asian Russia projects off-screen but is reachable by zooming out, so you can still color Russia in full when your project requires it. Common coloring projects: the 27 European Union member states, the 26-country Schengen Area (most overlap with the EU but Switzerland and Norway are in Schengen without being in the EU; Ireland is in the EU but not Schengen), the 32 NATO allies, or the 20 countries that use the Euro. For a Cold War history project, color the seven former Eastern Bloc states (East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania) in one shade and NATO-aligned western states in another.

Travel projects are popular too — color the European countries you have visited in green and the ones still on your list in yellow. Major countries by population include Germany (84 million), the United Kingdom (67 million), France (68 million), Italy (59 million), Spain (48 million), and Poland (38 million). For a print-ready version, see our printable blank map of Europe.

Color a map of Asia (53 countries)

Asia is the largest continent by both area and population, and the base map covers all 53 Asian countries from Japan in the east to Turkey in the west. Most coloring projects work from the natural sub-regions:

• East Asia — China (1.4 billion), Japan (125 million), South Korea (52 million), North Korea (26 million), Taiwan (23 million), Mongolia (3.4 million).
• Southeast Asia — the 10 ASEAN member states plus Timor-Leste: Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, Brunei, Timor-Leste.
• South Asia — India (1.43 billion), Pakistan (240 million), Bangladesh (173 million), Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Maldives.
• Central Asia — Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan.
• Western Asia / Middle East — Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Yemen, Oman, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, plus Turkey, Cyprus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia.

Common categorical projects: G20 members in Asia, OPEC nations across the Middle East, the BRICS bloc plus its 2024 expansion (China, India, Iran, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Ethiopia), CPTPP signatories, or the simple "countries you have visited" travel map.

Color a map of Africa (57 countries and territories)

The Africa base map shows all 54 sovereign African countries plus disputed Western Sahara, Somaliland, and France's Réunion. Five sub-regions structure most coloring work:

• North Africa — Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, plus Western Sahara. The five Maghreb countries (Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia) are sometimes treated as a separate group.
• West Africa — 16 countries dominated by Nigeria (220 million), plus Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Togo, Benin, Cabo Verde, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania.
• East Africa — 18 countries from the Horn (Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia) to the Great Lakes (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi).
• Central Africa — Cameroon, Gabon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Chad, São Tomé and Príncipe.
• Southern Africa — Angola, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Eswatini, Lesotho.

Use cases: highlight the 54 African Union member states (every sovereign African country except Morocco's Western Sahara claim is an AU member), francophone vs anglophone Africa, regional blocs (ECOWAS, SADC, EAC, COMESA), or the African countries an NGO operates in. Africa is also the continent with the highest count of land-locked countries (16 of them), which is itself a popular coloring project for geography lessons.

Color a map of North America (38 countries and territories)

The North America base map covers 38 territories: the three USMCA countries (United States, Canada, Mexico), seven Central American nations (Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama), and 28 Caribbean nations and dependencies.

Common projects: Caribbean coloring — highlight the 13 sovereign Caribbean countries (Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago) plus dependencies such as Puerto Rico, the Cayman Islands, or French overseas territories. Central America — color the 7 Central American countries for travel maps, supply-chain mapping, or coffee origin visualisation. USMCA — highlight Canada, the United States, and Mexico as a single trade bloc. For US-state-level coloring, switch to the United States base map; for individual US counties (3,143 of them), see our interactive US county map.

Color a map of South America (14 countries)

The South America base map renders all 14 sovereign South American territories: 12 countries plus French Guiana and the Falkland Islands. Coloring projects often follow political and physical regions:

• Mercosur — full members (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, with Venezuela suspended); associate members (Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Suriname, Guyana).
• Andean nations — Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina (the Andes mountain chain crosses all seven).
• Amazon basin — Brazil holds 60% of the Amazon, with the rest split among Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana.
• FIFA World Cup hosts — Uruguay (1930), Brazil (1950 and 2014), Chile (1962), Argentina (1978).

Brazil dominates the continent at 215 million people and 8.5 million sq km — bigger by area than the contiguous United States. Argentina (47 million) and Colombia (52 million) are the next largest by population. The smallest sovereign country is Suriname at 600,000 people.

Color a map of Oceania (26 countries and territories)

The Oceania base map covers 26 territories: 14 sovereign nations (Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Samoa, Kiribati, Tonga, Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, Nauru) plus dependencies and territories of France, the United States, the United Kingdom, and others. The map is centred on the Pacific so Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia all appear without antimeridian wrap-around.

Coloring projects: the three classic culture-geographic divisions of the Pacific — Polynesia (Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Niue, Cook Islands, French Polynesia), Melanesia (PNG, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia), and Micronesia (FSM, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, Palau, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands). Other categorical projects include the 18-member Pacific Islands Forum and the 11 CPTPP signatories that span Oceania and Asia. Australia (26 million) and New Zealand (5.2 million) account for roughly 80% of Oceania's population.

Color a map of US states (50 states + DC)

The United States base map renders 50 states plus the District of Columbia using the Albers USA projection (Alaska and Hawaii are repositioned for compact framing). The data shows political boundaries — to color individual counties (3,143 total) use our interactive US county map.

Common state-level coloring projects:

• Election maps — color each state by which presidential candidate won, by senator party, or by gubernatorial party. The 2024 electoral map had Republicans winning 31 states and Democrats winning 19 states plus DC.
• US Census regions — Northeast (9 states: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont), Midwest (12 states), South (16 states + DC), West (13 states).
• Sales territory — split the country by your reps. A common B2B split is "East of the Mississippi" / "West of the Mississippi" or by Census region.
• Sports geography — the 32 NFL teams cover 22 states (some states have two teams: California, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Florida, Ohio, Maryland/DC). MLB covers 17 states; the NBA covers 21.
• Travel "states I have been to" — color the states you have visited, lived in, or still want to visit.
• Historical maps — Confederate vs Union (11 vs 25 states + the four Border States), the original 13 colonies, the Louisiana Purchase territory, and so on.

The largest US state by area is Alaska (665,384 sq mi). The smallest is Rhode Island (1,545 sq mi). The most populous is California (39.3 million). The least populous is Wyoming (581,000). Browse our printable blank US map for offline classroom and presentation use.

What is a map coloring tool?

A map coloring tool lets you fill countries, US states, or geographic regions with custom colors to produce a styled map. Unlike a paper coloring book, the result is digital and exportable: a PNG for slides, an SVG for designers, or a PDF for print. Unlike a data-driven choropleth (where colors come from a spreadsheet column), a coloring tool is direct — you click a region and it fills.

Map coloring tools are most useful for two kinds of work. First, categorical visualizations: travel maps showing countries visited, election maps where you shade a map by which party won each state, and sales territory maps. Second, educational and creative work: classroom handouts, worldbuilding for fiction or tabletop role-playing games, and historical timeline maps. Some people call it a country highlighter, a state highlighter map, or simply a colorful map builder — the underlying job is the same.

Color a Map runs entirely in your browser using vector SVG rendering — there is no server, no account, and no upload. Your map is yours alone, autosaved locally so you can pick up where you left off. Boundaries come from the same public-domain datasets used by cartographers and government agencies.

Search engines surface this kind of tool under several phrases — color a map, color world map, color countries map, highlight map regions, highlight countries on map, and shade a map. All describe the same workflow: pick a base map, pick a color, click any region to fill. Color a Map handles every variant through a single click-to-fill interface.

When to use Color a Map versus other map tools

SimpleMapLab has 24 specialized map tools, and the right one depends on your goal:

• Color a Map — when you want to highlight specific regions with custom colors and a categorical legend. Best for travel maps, election recaps, and territory visualization.
• Interactive US County Map — when you want a data-driven choropleth of all 3,143 US counties by population, income, or other built-in metric. The colors come from data, not clicks.
• County Map with Cities — when you want to explore a single county with city markers and demographic context. Different intent: depth, not breadth.
• Map Radius Tool — when you want to draw a circle at a specific radius from a point. Geometric, not categorical.
• Map Area Calculator — when you want to measure the area of an arbitrary polygon. The output is a number, not a styled map.

See the full set on the tools index.

Common use cases for coloring a map

Whether you want to color a world map of visited countries, shade a map of US states by election result, or build a colorful map of European regions for a school project, the click-to-fill workflow is identical. Below: eight examples of how people use a map coloring tool in practice, with concrete numbers from real projects.

Color a Map versus MapChart and other map drawing software

Honest comparison against the alternatives. We do not have every feature MapChart and Datawrapper offer — but we hold our own for the categorical-coloring use case, and we export better.

Export and sharing options

Three export formats and a shareable URL — pick whichever fits the destination.

• PNG — 2× device-pixel-ratio raster image. Good for slides, social media, blog headers, and email. The exported file embeds the legend and a small SimpleMapLab attribution that you can crop off if needed.
• SVG — native vector graphic. Open it in Illustrator, Inkscape, or Figma to recolor, retitle, or composite into a larger graphic. Scales infinitely without quality loss.
• PDF — sized for US Letter or A4 with print-safe margins. The map fills the available area, the legend sits below or beside it, and the file is vector so it prints crisply at any size.
• Shareable URL — encodes every color, region assignment, and legend label into the URL hash. Anyone with the link sees the same map. Useful for collaborating on a territory map or sending a quick visual to a colleague.

Frequently asked questions

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