How to make a custom world map for presentations

Slides with a colored world map beat a bullet list every time — market presence, offices, visited countries, shipping zones. Here's how to make one that looks deliberate rather than default.

1Color with intent

1. Open the world map and pick a palette — for a professional look, choose one sequential ramp (e.g. Blues) instead of rainbow colors.
2. Click countries, or hold and drag to paint several neighbours at once.
3. Group by meaning: one color per category, then label each color in the Legend panel ("Live", "Launching 2027", "Not covered").
4. Use Stripes or Dots fills for a category that overlaps another — they also survive black-and-white printing.

2Pick a projection

The Projection dropdown offers Natural Earth (balanced, default), Equal Earth (areas are true to size — fair to Africa and South America), Mercator (familiar, but inflates the far north), and an orthographic Globe that looks great on title slides.

3Match your slide style

• Set the sea color to white or your slide background for a seamless look — or go dark navy for a dramatic one.
• Add a short map title; it's part of the exported image.
• Turn off borders for a minimalist style, or keep them for clarity.

4Export sharp

For slides, export PNG at 2500–4000 px wide — it stays crisp on projectors and retina screens. For design tools, export SVG and you can restyle every country as a vector. The 🔗 Share button gives collaborators a link to the live, editable map.

Which projection for which slide?

• Natural Earth — the safe default. Balanced shapes, familiar layout, works for almost every "where do we operate" map.
• Equal Earth — when relative size matters. If your point is about Africa, South America or Southeast Asia, this projection doesn't shrink them the way Mercator does.
• Mercator — when the audience expects the map to look like Google Maps, or when you'll zoom into one region where its distortion doesn't matter.
• Globe — title slides and hero images. Drag the ocean to rotate it so your region of interest faces the viewer, then export. One hemisphere is hidden, so don't use it for maps where every country must be visible.

Six ideas people build with this map

• Countries visited. The classic. One color for visited, a second for "next up" — and the share link makes it a game with friends.
• Market coverage. Live markets, launching soon, partner-served, not covered — four colors and a legend, straight into the sales deck.
• Study-abroad or university partnerships. Color partner countries and title it — done in five minutes for the department site.
• Sports tournaments. Qualified teams, host nation, title holders — update the same shared map as the tournament progresses.
• Language or treaty membership maps. Anything organized by country — EU/ASEAN membership, official languages, driving side, time zones.
• Historical empires and alliances. Use the stripes fill for contested or dual-influence territories.

Frequently asked questions

Can I show country names on the map?

Yes — tick Show country names in the Display panel. Labels scale with zoom, so zoom in before exporting if you need small countries labeled legibly.

Can I use the exported map commercially?

Yes. Exports have no watermark and are yours for any use — the boundary data is public-domain Natural Earth. Details in the terms of use.

How do I save my work and come back later?

The map autosaves in your browser. For a portable copy, click ⬇ Config to download a small file you can re-load later with ⬆ Load — useful when switching devices, since nothing is stored on a server.

I need states and provinces, not countries.

Use the per-country maps: USA, Germany, India or any of the 250+ country maps — same controls, one level deeper.