Complex Marker Icons

  • This example demonstrates how to create complex markers on a Google Map using the google.maps.Marker class.

  • The markers are customized with images, shapes, and specific coordinates to represent beaches near Sydney, Australia.

  • The code provides examples in both JavaScript and TypeScript, along with CSS and HTML for setting up the map display.

  • Although google.maps.Marker is deprecated in favor of google.maps.marker.AdvancedMarkerElement, it's still functional and used in this example.

This example creates complex markers to indicate beaches near Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Read the documentation.

TypeScript

// The following example creates complex markers to indicate beaches near
// Sydney, NSW, Australia. Note that the anchor is set to (0,32) to correspond
// to the base of the flagpole.

function initMap(): void {
  const map = new google.maps.Map(
    document.getElementById("map") as HTMLElement,
    {
      zoom: 10,
      center: { lat: -33.9, lng: 151.2 },
    }
  );

  setMarkers(map);
}

// Data for the markers consisting of a name, a LatLng and a zIndex for the
// order in which these markers should display on top of each other.
const beaches: [string, number, number, number][] = [
  ["Bondi Beach", -33.890542, 151.274856, 4],
  ["Coogee Beach", -33.923036, 151.259052, 5],
  ["Cronulla Beach", -34.028249, 151.157507, 3],
  ["Manly Beach", -33.80010128657071, 151.28747820854187, 2],
  ["Maroubra Beach", -33.950198, 151.259302, 1],
];

function setMarkers(map: google.maps.Map) {
  // Adds markers to the map.

  // Marker sizes are expressed as a Size of X,Y where the origin of the image
  // (0,0) is located in the top left of the image.

  // Origins, anchor positions and coordinates of the marker increase in the X
  // direction to the right and in the Y direction down.
  const image = {
    url: "https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/examples/full/images/beachflag.png",
    // This marker is 20 pixels wide by 32 pixels high.
    size: new google.maps.Size(20, 32),
    // The origin for this image is (0, 0).
    origin: new google.maps.Point(0, 0),
    // The anchor for this image is the base of the flagpole at (0, 32).
    anchor: new google.maps.Point(0, 32),
  };
  // Shapes define the clickable region of the icon. The type defines an HTML
  // <area> element 'poly' which traces out a polygon as a series of X,Y points.
  // The final coordinate closes the poly by connecting to the first coordinate.
  const shape = {
    coords: [1, 1, 1, 20, 18, 20, 18, 1],
    type: "poly",
  };

  for (let i = 0; i < beaches.length; i++) {
    const beach = beaches[i];

    new google.maps.Marker({
      position: { lat: beach[1], lng: beach[2] },
      map,
      icon: image,
      shape: shape,
      title: beach[0],
      zIndex: beach[3],
    });
  }
}

declare global {
  interface Window {
    initMap: () => void;
  }
}
window.initMap = initMap;
index.ts

JavaScript

// The following example creates complex markers to indicate beaches near
// Sydney, NSW, Australia. Note that the anchor is set to (0,32) to correspond
// to the base of the flagpole.
function initMap() {
  const map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById("map"), {
    zoom: 10,
    center: { lat: -33.9, lng: 151.2 },
  });

  setMarkers(map);
}

// Data for the markers consisting of a name, a LatLng and a zIndex for the
// order in which these markers should display on top of each other.
const beaches = [
  ["Bondi Beach", -33.890542, 151.274856, 4],
  ["Coogee Beach", -33.923036, 151.259052, 5],
  ["Cronulla Beach", -34.028249, 151.157507, 3],
  ["Manly Beach", -33.80010128657071, 151.28747820854187, 2],
  ["Maroubra Beach", -33.950198, 151.259302, 1],
];

function setMarkers(map) {
  // Adds markers to the map.
  // Marker sizes are expressed as a Size of X,Y where the origin of the image
  // (0,0) is located in the top left of the image.
  // Origins, anchor positions and coordinates of the marker increase in the X
  // direction to the right and in the Y direction down.
  const image = {
    url: "https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/examples/full/images/beachflag.png",
    // This marker is 20 pixels wide by 32 pixels high.
    size: new google.maps.Size(20, 32),
    // The origin for this image is (0, 0).
    origin: new google.maps.Point(0, 0),
    // The anchor for this image is the base of the flagpole at (0, 32).
    anchor: new google.maps.Point(0, 32),
  };
  // Shapes define the clickable region of the icon. The type defines an HTML
  // <area> element 'poly' which traces out a polygon as a series of X,Y points.
  // The final coordinate closes the poly by connecting to the first coordinate.
  const shape = {
    coords: [1, 1, 1, 20, 18, 20, 18, 1],
    type: "poly",
  };

  for (let i = 0; i < beaches.length; i++) {
    const beach = beaches[i];

    new google.maps.Marker({
      position: { lat: beach[1], lng: beach[2] },
      map,
      icon: image,
      shape: shape,
      title: beach[0],
      zIndex: beach[3],
    });
  }
}

window.initMap = initMap;
index.js

CSS

/* 
 * Always set the map height explicitly to define the size of the div element
 * that contains the map. 
 */
#map {
  height: 100%;
}

/* 
 * Optional: Makes the sample page fill the window. 
 */
html,
body {
  height: 100%;
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
}

style.css

HTML

<html>
  <head>
    <title>Complex Marker Icons</title>

    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="./style.css" />
    <script type="module" src="./index.js"></script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id="map"></div>

    <!-- 
      The `defer` attribute causes the script to execute after the full HTML
      document has been parsed. For non-blocking uses, avoiding race conditions,
      and consistent behavior across browsers, consider loading using Promises. See
      https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/load-maps-js-api
      for more information.
      -->
    <script
      src="https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?key=AIzaSyB41DRUbKWJHPxaFjMAwdrzWzbVKartNGg&callback=initMap&v=weekly"
      defer
    ></script>
  </body>
</html>
index.html

Try Sample

Clone Sample

Git and Node.js are required to run this sample locally. Follow these instructions to install Node.js and NPM. The following commands clone, install dependencies and start the sample application. 

  git clone -b sample-icon-complex https://github.com/googlemaps/js-samples.git
  cd js-samples
  npm i
  npm start

Other samples can be tried by switching to any branch beginning with sample-SAMPLE_NAME. 

  git checkout sample-SAMPLE_NAME
  npm i
  npm start