How to Change the Map Style in Mapimator
The map style sets the entire visual mood of your animation. Mapimator offers five distinct themes — from photorealistic satellite imagery to minimal clean backgrounds — and lets you switch between them instantly without losing any of your content.
3 min read · Updated May 1, 2025
What you'll learn
- Open the Map Styles panel
- Switch between all five available styles
- Enable 3D buildings and terrain
- Toggle between Globe and Mercator projections
Step-by-step guide
- 1
Open the Map Styles panel
Click the Map Preview thumbnail in the bottom-left corner of the Studio stage. The Map Styles panel opens, showing all available themes and projection options.
- 2
Click any style to apply it
Click the style name or preview to switch instantly. All your pins, routes, and region highlights remain in place — only the background map changes.
- 3
Choose the right style for your content
Satellite: photorealistic aerial imagery, best for travel and geography. Voyager: modern colorful street map, best for city guides. Positron (Light): clean white background, best for data and corporate. Dark Matter: dark cinematic background, best for social media. OpenFreeMap Terrain: topographic contours, best for outdoor and nature content.
- 4
Enable 3D buildings (optional)
Toggle the 3D switch in the Map Styles panel to show extruded buildings and terrain elevation. Then right-click and drag the map (or Ctrl+drag) to pitch the camera and see the 3D depth in your slides.
- 5
Switch projections
Click the projection toggle to switch between Globe (spherical, accurate for world-scale animations) and Mercator (flat, traditional, better for regional animations). The globe projection is most striking for world overview slides.
Interactive walkthrough coming soon
A visual step-by-step guide with annotated screenshots will be available here. In the meantime, follow the written steps above or watch the video tutorials.
Watch video tutorials →Pro tips
- Use Light or Dark Matter while editing — they load much faster than Satellite. Switch to your final style only when you are ready to export.
- The map style is a global setting. You cannot use different styles on different slides within the same animation.
- Dark Matter + colored region fills is a powerful combination for business and data storytelling presentations.