A free, browser-based cartography studio. Build a map from your own spatial data, style it with proper GIS symbology and classification, then compose a finished, print-ready layout with a legend, scale bar and north arrow — or share it as a live, interactive web map. Everything runs in your browser: nothing is installed, and your data never leaves your computer.
Where your work lives: projects and datasets are saved in this browser, on this computer — nothing is uploaded to a server. To carry your work between machines, use ☁ Sync in the top bar: point Map-O-Matic at a folder you already sync (OneDrive, Google Drive or Dropbox) and every project is written there as a file whenever it saves, so you can pick up on another computer. Sync needs Chrome or Edge. Either way, on a shared or lab computer it's wise to also download a project file (card menu → Export) or a full project archive as a portable backup, and take it with you.
A. Map Maker → Layout (all in this tool). Add data in Map Maker, filter and symbolize it, then click Send to Composer — your styled map arrives as a map frame with the scale already calibrated and a legend built from your symbology.
B. Bring your own map image. Made a map elsewhere (any GIS or graphics software)? Export it as an image and upload it in the Layout module via Map Frame, then calibrate the scale bar by drawing a reference line of known distance.
The + Add data menu takes uploads (GeoJSON, CSV with lat/long, zipped shapefile), your data library, and online sources: Natural Earth base layers, OpenStreetMap features for your map area, open-data portal search, or any GeoJSON/CSV/feature-service URL. Select a layer to set its symbology (single, categories, graduated colour with equal interval / quantile / natural breaks / manual classification, graduated symbol size), filters, and labels. The attribute table includes the filter builder and Field Calculator (e.g. rate = count / population * 1000). Spatial tools: buffer, select by location, points-in-polygons statistics, clip, erase, intersect, union, dissolve, merge, centroids, convex hull, bounding box, simplify, nearest-neighbour join, and distance matrix. The ⬇ button on each layer exports valid GeoJSON or CSV, including calculated fields. The ⟨ ⟩ buttons collapse the side panels.
The Projection selector switches the map from the Web Mercator editing view into any of 13 projections — world (Equal Earth, Robinson, Winkel Tripel, Mollweide, Mercator, Orthographic), regional conic (Albers, Lambert Conformal, with adjustable centre and standard parallels), azimuthal (Equidistant, Stereographic), and historical (Gall–Peters, Goode, Bonne). Projected view draws your vector layers with an optional graticule and world-land backdrop; raster basemaps can't be reprojected in the browser, so they hide. Send to Composer captures the projected map (scale bars don't apply — scale varies across a projection).
Start from a Template if you like — double-click any placeholder to fill it with the real element in that exact spot. Add title, text, legend, north arrow, scale bar, neatline, images. Everything drags, resizes, and rotates. Undo with Ctrl+Z. The Margins button shows 0.5" margin guides (never exported). A Live Embed shows an interactive web map on screen for reference but prints as a placeholder — use a real image frame for the final export.
Scale bars link to a map frame. Frames sent from Map Maker (in Web Mercator view) are calibrated automatically. For uploaded images, select the frame, click Calibrate scale, click two points with a known real-world distance between them, and enter the distance. The bar resizes automatically if you resize the frame.
The 🏠 home screen lists all your projects (stored in this browser — nothing goes to a server) with rename, duplicate, delete, import, and export. The project dropdown in the top bar jumps between them; work is autosaved as you go. Datasets live in a shared Data library usable across projects — "+ Add data → From my library" adds one to the current project. On shared computers, always download a project file or archive as backup before you leave.
Export covers everything: the layout as print-ready PDF/PNG; the Map Maker view as a georeferenced PNG with world file (usable in other GIS software); all data layers as a zip of GeoJSON files; or a full project archive (layout + layers + project file) — the complete package in one download.
Map-O-Matic was created by Jonathan Cinnamon (Geography, UBC Okanagan). It's free to use and runs entirely in your browser — your data stays on your computer. Basemap tiles and online data sources are the only network requests your data workflow makes.
Templates give you a conventional starting arrangement — everything stays editable, and double-clicking a placeholder fills it with the real element in that spot. Applying a template replaces the current page contents.
Centred title, full-width map, legend and marginalia below. The standard single-map layout.
Map fills the left ~70%; title, legend, north arrow, and notes stack in a right panel.
Two map frames side by side under one title — for before/after or variable comparisons.
Enter the real-world distance between the two points you clicked.
GeoJSON exports are valid FeatureCollections and include any calculated fields. Note: Save project files are for reloading work in this tool and are not GeoJSON — use this export for other GIS software.
The current map view will be captured as a high-resolution image and placed on the layout page, with the scale calibrated automatically from the map. Pan/zoom the map to the exact extent you want first.
Pan and zoom the basemap. Optionally add a data layer or draw a locator box. “Add to layout” captures a snapshot you can move and resize on the page.
Margin guides and live-embed previews are excluded automatically. Live embeds print as placeholders — swap them for image frames before submitting.
Your styled, interactive map is packed into a link — no upload, no account, nothing sent to a server. Anyone who opens the link sees the live map: pan, zoom and click. Paste the embed code into ArcGIS StoryMaps (an Embed block) or any web page.
The HTML file just downloaded is a complete, self-contained interactive map. Put it online, then embed it anywhere.
Until you paste a published address, the code points at the file name — replace it with your real URL, or use step 2 to fill it in. Paste this into an ArcGIS StoryMaps Embed block or any web page.
Natural Earth — the standard public-domain base layers used in professional cartography.
Fetches live OpenStreetMap features inside the current Map Maker view — zoom to your study area first. Community-contributed data: coverage and quality vary.
Results are capped at 8,000 features per query. Complex multipolygon features may be omitted.
Examples: a .geojson export link from any open data portal, or an Esri REST endpoint ending in /FeatureServer/0. The source must allow cross-origin access (most public portals do).
Datasets from all your projects. Tick every one you want, then Add selected — each becomes a new layer in the current project that references the shared dataset.
Paste an embed URL from a publicly shared web map (e.g. a map viewer's “Embed map” option). It displays live and interactive on screen, but exports as a placeholder — use an image map frame for the final version.