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How to customise category and class break symbology

Change the symbol, label, or value of one category or class break. Rename legend labels, round break values, recolour or hide a category, or change a marker.

When you style a layer by a field, MangoMap makes the symbology for you: one symbol for each category, or one for each class break. You can change each category or class break by itself. Round awkward break values (17.342 to 20), give code-style labels readable names, or give one road class, one building type, or one airport type its own colour so it stands out. The legend shows your changes. On a point, line, or polygon layer with its colour driver set to a field, expand Customise categories or Customise Class Breaks and edit each row in place.

See it on an example map

Open the World Point Styling Lab. Turn on the Icons folder and turn off Size and Colour. Airports — Icons by Type gives each airport type its own icon, size, and label, turns the military rows 45°, and hides the one small airport. In Classes and Gradients, Centroids — GDP, Round Breaks has break values and labels set by hand.

Before you start

  • You need edit access to the map.
  • The layer’s colour driver is set to a text field or a numeric field. Customisation isn’t available with the no-field option (Single colour or Uniform colour), Colour by zoom, or the Heatmap marker type. None of them has categories or class breaks.
  • Plan your changes first. For each category or class break, you can:
    • Change its colour without touching the layer’s colour scheme.
    • Rename its legend label (primary to Main road).
    • Move its value, for class breaks (17.342 to 20).
    • Hide it, so it doesn’t appear in the legend or on the map, for categories.
    • Change its marker (points), line pattern (lines), or fill pattern (polygons) to make it stand out.

The steps are the same for points, lines, and polygons. The control names, and what each row can change, depend on the geometry:

Point Line Polygon
Colour driver Colour markers by Colour lines by Fill polygons by
Each category or class break can set Colour and transparency (or opacity for a custom icon), marker type, outline (Circle), marker size, icon rotation (Icon) Colour and transparency, line pattern Fill colour and transparency, fill pattern
Same for the whole layer Size from a numeric field, if you set one Line width, casing, cap, and join Outline: Stroke, stroke colour, and stroke width
Category reset menu Reset all labels, Reset all symbology Reset colours, Reset labels Reset colours, Reset labels

Open the Style tab and pick the colour driver

Open the layer’s settings, then the Style tab. Set the colour driver (Colour markers by, Colour lines by, or Fill polygons by) to the text or numeric field you want. MangoMap makes the default categories or class breaks.

Open Customise categories or Customise Class Breaks

Below the colour scheme controls, expand the customisation section. Its label depends on the style:

  • For categories (a text field, or a numeric field with Style as set to Categories), it is Customise categories.
  • For class breaks (a numeric field with Style as set to a class count), it is Customise Class Breaks.

There is one row for each category or class break. A category row has:

  • Swatch: click it to change the row’s symbol. Picking a colour overrides the colour scheme for that row only.
  • Label: the text the legend shows.
  • Eye icon: hide the row from the legend and the map.
  • Drag handle: drag rows to reorder the legend.

A class break row has:

  • Swatch: the same as on a category row.
  • Value: the lower bound of the class.
  • Label: the text the legend shows.
  • Reset icon: returns the whole row to its default colour, value, label, and symbol. On line and polygon layers it appears once you change the row. On point layers it does not appear today; Reset to global in the row’s swatch settings resets the symbol only.
Customise Class Breaks expanded on the Centroids — GDP point layer: the Reset customizations button, the Legend layout toggle, and five class-break rows with swatch, value, and labels renamed to Under $1,500, $1,500 – $3,900, $3,900 – $8,000, $8,000 – $26,000, and Over $26,000
Customise Class Breaks expanded on the Roads — Quantity line layer: the Reset customizations button, the Legend layout toggle, and five class-break rows with swatch, value, labels renamed to Under 40 m, 40 – 80 m, 80 – 125 m, 125 – 210 m, and Over 210 m, and a reset icon on each row
Customise Class Breaks expanded on the Population — Quantile layer: the Reset customizations button beside the collapsible, the Legend layout toggle, and five class-break rows with swatch, range, and labels renamed to Under 2.5M, 2.5M – 6.9M, 6.9M – 16M, 16M – 39M, and Over 39M

On class break panels, a Legend layout toggle above the rows switches the legend between a vertical and a horizontal layout.

The map viewer's legend with the Population — Quantile classes laid out horizontally: five colour swatches in a row, with the lowest value (>=140) under the first and the highest (>39309783) under the last

Edit a row

Click the swatch to open the row’s symbol settings. Click the value or the label to type a new one. Changes don’t reach the map or the legend until you click Save.

Controls for each geometry

The swatch opens the same settings for a category row and a class break row. What it shows depends on the geometry. The settings change only that row. Settings that are not in the swatch, such as line width or the polygon outline, are the same for every row (see the table at the top of this page).

Point

The settings depend on the row’s Marker type:

Setting Circle Icon Custom Icon Range and notes
Marker type Yes Yes Yes Circle, Icon, or Custom Icon. One row can use a different marker from the rest.
Select Icon Yes Yes Opens the icon library, or your uploaded icons for Custom Icon. See How to upload a custom point icon.
Fill colour Yes Yes Colour and transparency. On an Icon, it colours the icon. A custom icon keeps its own colours.
Opacity Yes 0 to 100%, with a slider and a number box. Starts at 100%. Replaces fill colour for a custom icon. The layer’s opacity slider does not change it.
Outline colour Yes Colour and transparency.
Outline width Yes 0.5 to 5 px, in steps of 0.5 px.
Marker size Yes Yes 2 to 50 px. Greyed out while Vary size by zoom level is on: Circle rows then take their size from the zoom stops, and Icon rows keep the size they had. See How to vary marker size by zoom level.
Icon rotation Yes 0 to 360 degrees, in steps of 5.
Customise categories on the Airports — Category point layer with the major row's swatch settings open: Marker type set to Circle, fill colour, outline colour and width, marker size, and Reset to global

A saved layer with a marker, size, and label on each row, and one row hidden:

Customise categories on the Airports — Icons by Type point layer: rows Major, Mid-size, and five Military rows, each with an airplane icon swatch in blue or grey, a Label box, an eye icon, and the Small row with its eye icon closed

Line

Setting Range and notes
Line colour Colour and transparency. A row with its own colour keeps its own transparency when you move the layer’s Line opacity slider. See How to set line width and opacity.
Line pattern Solid, Dashed, or Dotted. Use it to set one row apart, such as a dashed footpath among solid roads. See How to style line patterns and casing.

Line width, casing, cap, and join are the same for every row. Each row’s swatch shows its colour and pattern with the layer’s cap and casing, as the map draws it.

Customise categories on the Roads — Category line layer with the Motorway row's swatch settings open: the dark red line colour and the line pattern list set to Solid

Polygon

Setting Range and notes
Fill colour Colour and transparency.
Fill pattern Hover over the brush icon to see the tooltip Fill pattern style. The same patterns as for the whole layer, such as Slash, Grid, or Dots. See How to style polygon fill patterns.

The outline is the same for every row. See How to style polygon outlines.

Customise categories on the Countries — Income Group polygon layer with the first row's swatch settings open: fill colour and the fill pattern list set to Solid

Reset one row

Once you change a row’s symbol, a Reset to global button appears at the end of its swatch settings. It returns the row’s marker, size, and outline (points), line pattern (lines), or fill pattern (polygons) to the layer’s settings. It keeps the colour you picked.

To get the colour scheme’s colour back on a line or polygon class break row, use the reset icon at the end of the row. It also resets the row’s value and label. On other rows, pick the colour again in the swatch.

Set class break values

Set class break values before labels. Changing a value resets that row’s label to the default, such as > 20.

Each class runs from its own value up to the next row’s value, so the classes have no gaps. When you move a value, features near it can move to the next class. Features below the first row’s value do not draw.

Reset customisations

After you customise a row, a reset button appears to the right of the section’s chevron. On line, polygon, and class break panels, its tooltip is Reset customizations. Click it to open a menu of reset actions:

  • Category panels: the actions are in the table at the top of this page. Each one asks you to confirm before it runs. Reset all symbology resets every row’s marker, size, outline, and transparency on a point layer at once. It keeps the colours you picked.
  • Class break panels (every geometry): Reset ranges and Reset labels, each with the number of changed rows. Each one runs at once, with no confirmation. A colour that you pick in a row’s swatch is not in this menu. To reset it on a line or polygon layer, use the row’s reset icon.
The Reset customizations menu open on the Population — Quantile class breaks, with Reset ranges (1) and Reset labels (1), after one row's colour, one value, and one label were changed

To reset one row, see Reset one row.

If you switch Style as

On a numeric field, switching Style as between Categories and a class count or Continuous builds a new list. Every customisation on the old list is lost, and switching back does not restore it. Choose the style before you customise rows.

Save

Click Save at the bottom of the panel.

If you close the layer settings or switch tabs without clicking Save, every customisation since the last save is lost. See Troubleshooting: my style change isn’t appearing on the map.

Verify the result

Each category or class break you changed shows its new symbol and label in the map and the legend. Hidden categories are gone from the map and the legend.

The map viewer after saving Airports — Category: the legend shows readable labels such as Major airport, Mid-size airport, and Small airport, and the major airports show in black on the map
The map viewer after saving Roads — Category: the legend shows the renamed labels Expressway and Expressway ramp at the top, and Cycleway with a red dashed swatch; the cycleways show as red dashed lines on the map
The map viewer after saving Population — Quantile with rounded values: the legend shows Under 2.5M, 2.5M – 7M, 7M – 16M, 16M – 40M, and Over 40M, and the countries on the map use those classes

When rows have their own markers, the legend shows each row’s icon:

World Point Styling Lab as a viewer sees it with Airports — Icons by Type on: blue airplane icons across the map, grey tilted airplanes for military fields, and the legend entry listing Major, Mid-size, and the Military rows with their icons

What this doesn’t cover

Reference

For every editable cell on a category or class break row, by geometry, see Category and class break symbology reference.