Map Maker

    Make your own South America map

    Color the countries of South America for a backpacking route, a Mercosur chart, a classroom map of the Amazon basin, or a data choropleth, then download the result as PNG or SVG with your own legend and title.

    What's on this map

    15 regions: the twelve sovereign countries from Colombia and Venezuela down to Chile and Argentina, plus the Falkland Islands and Trinidad and Tobago. French Guiana is on the map too. It is an overseas region of France, so it's drawn (and colored) as France. That's how the sovereign-boundary dataset works, and the map is honest about it rather than hiding the territory.

    How it works

    1. Pick a paint from the palette, or choose a custom color.
    2. Click or tap countries to color them, or drag across several to color them in one sweep. Click again with the same paint to clear it.
    3. Label your legend and give the map a title.
    4. Download the map as PNG or SVG, or save the project file to keep editing later.

    Shade the map from data (choropleth)

    Have numbers instead of colors in mind? Open Data and paste two spreadsheet columns: country names or ISO codes with a value, like Brazil, 216. The map shades every matched region from low to high with a numeric legend. Pick the number of classes, equal-count or equal-range breaks, and a color ramp, then download the choropleth map as PNG or SVG.

    Map ideas

    The classic Patagonia-to-Cartagena backpacking route with arrows per leg; Mercosur and Andean Community membership; Copa América and football-rivalry maps; Amazon rainforest coverage for teaching; export or population choropleths pasted from a spreadsheet.

    Frequently asked questions

    Why does French Guiana color together with France?

    French Guiana is legally part of France, and the map's Natural Earth source draws sovereign boundaries, so the region carries France's color. Select it and you're coloring France.

    Are the Falkland Islands included?

    Yes, the Falklands are a separate colorable region, as is Trinidad and Tobago at the northern edge of the map.

    Is Map Maker free?

    Yes. Everything is free: coloring, legends, the Data dialog, and PNG and SVG downloads. No account, no watermark.

    Where are my maps saved?

    In your own browser. Nothing is uploaded; each map autosaves on your device, and Save project gives you a file you can back up or open on another computer.

    More maps

    The same editor works on the world map, the Europe map, the Asia map, the Africa map, the North America map, the Oceania map, and the US states map. Every map keeps its own colors, legend, and title, so you can work on several at once.

    Map data: Natural Earth and the US Census Bureau (public domain). Borders follow the source data's sovereign boundaries.