Draw on a map and export to KML, GeoJSON or GPX

Sometimes you just need a few shapes on a map: the boundary of a field, the route of a planned walk, the spots where the equipment stands, a sketch of an area for a colleague. Choose Point, Line or Area and click on the map. A line grows with every click and ends when you press Finish, double-click or press Enter; an area closes when you click its first corner again. Each shape gets its own colour and a row in the list, where you can type a name, read its length or its area and perimeter, select it to drag its points, or delete it. The drawing lives in the page address, so the share link opens exactly the same map for anyone, without an account. When you are done, download everything as KML, GeoJSON or GPX with the names you gave. To continue an earlier drawing or check a file you received, open a GeoJSON, KML or GPX file and its points, lines and polygons are added to the map.

How to use it

1. Search a town or zoom the map to your area.
2. Choose Point, Line or Area, then click on the map; finish a line or area with Finish, a double-click or Enter.
3. Name each shape in the list and drag the points of the selected shape to adjust it.
4. Download the drawing as KML, GeoJSON or GPX, or copy the share link.

How accurate is it?

Shapes follow the real shape of the Earth

Every line and every edge of an area is a geodesic, the shortest path on the WGS84 ellipsoid, and it is drawn as the curve it really is on a web map. Lengths, areas and perimeters are calculated with GeographicLib and are exact for the points you placed; the uncertainty is only in where you clicked, which at street level is a few metres and when zoomed out to a whole country can be kilometres.

What the exports contain

Coordinates are written as WGS84 longitude and latitude with six decimals, about 0.1 m, the format Google Earth, QGIS, ArcGIS and GPS devices expect. KML and GeoJSON keep points, lines and polygons with their names, colours, lengths and areas. GPX has no polygons, so areas are saved as closed tracks and points as waypoints. The exports contain the corners you clicked; programs that draw straight lines between them in a flat projection show long edges slightly differently from the curves on this map.

Opening files

GeoJSON files are read with all points, lines and polygons, including the multi-part kinds. From KML the tool reads placemarks with points, lines, polygons and Google Earth tracks; from GPX it reads waypoints, routes and tracks. Holes in polygons, styles, folders and time stamps are not kept, and files with projected coordinates rather than longitude and latitude cannot be shown.

Good to know

Very large drawings and the share link

The whole drawing is stored in the link, which works well for dozens of shapes and a few thousand points. A large GPX track or a detailed boundary makes the link too long for some chat apps and e-mail programs; download the drawing as a file instead and send that.

Close areas on purpose

An area needs at least three corners and is closed automatically between the last and the first corner. If the edges cross each other, as in a figure eight, the area is not meaningful; move a corner so the outline goes round once.

Nothing is saved on a server

There is no account and no storage. Closing the page without copying the link or downloading the file loses the drawing, so keep the link or the file when you want to continue later.