Styling Markers on Mapbox Static Maps

Oct 5, 2019

Recently I was using the python map-box api to generate static maps. I needed to style the markers which pin pointed locations on the map. I found it difficult to find the necessary documentation on how to do this. In the end it simply involved adding the following fields:

• maker-colour (hex value).
• marker-symbol (Maki icon name. an integer, or a lowercase letter).
• marker-size (small, large).

To the JSON like so:

origin = {
    'type': 'Feature',
    'properties': {
        'name': 'Cambridge', 
        'marker-color': '#f600f6', 
        'marker-symbol': 'c',
        'marker-size': 'large',
        },
    'geometry': {
        'type': 'Point',
        'coordinates': [0.1218,52.2053]
        },
    }

Here is the output:

Here is the full code sample:

from mapbox import StaticStyle

location1 = {
    'type': 'Feature',
    'properties': {
        'name': 'Cambridge', 
        'marker-color': '#f600f6', 
        'marker-symbol': 'c',
        'marker-size': 'large',
        },
    'geometry': {
        'type': 'Point',
        'coordinates': [0.1218,52.2053]
        },
}
    
location2 = {
    'type': 'Feature',
    'properties': {
        'name': 'Kings Cross London',
        'marker-color': '#26fae4',
        'marker-symbol': 'k',
        'marker-size': 'large',
        },
    'geometry': {
        'type': 'Point',
        'coordinates': [-0.125250,51.544180]
        }
}

features = [location1, location2]
service  = StaticStyle()
response = service.image(username='mapbox', 
                         style_id='streets-v9', 
                         retina=True,
                         attribution=False, 
                         logo=False,
                         features=features)
    
with open('map.png', 'wb') as img:
    img.write(response.content)

Note: Remember to the set the environment variable:

MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN="MY_ACCESS_TOKEN"

Before you run your script, the environment variable is read by the mapbox library.

Mapbox static maps documentation.

Fin.