KML4Earth


Reference

© Copyright 2011 jasonm1

Google Earth logo Google Earth/Maps Icons

The following is a collection of icons Google makes available for Google Earth and Google Maps.

This is a useful cheat sheet showing all the standard icons to use in Google Earth, Google Maps, and other map related applications. All icons are PNG images and include standard symbols for weather, highway, roads, numbers, arrows, etc. The icons below are the official Google icons shown in one place for a handy reference.

You can insert the URLs below into Google Earth when editing the icon for a given placemark [see instructions]or use in the KML you create programmically.

Click any of the groups below to jump to that particular group of icons:


http://maps.google.com/mapfiles/kml/shapes

airports icon arrow reverse arrow icon arts bars broken_link bus icon cabs camera icon campfire icon campground icon capital big capital big highlight capital small capital small highlight caution icon church icon coffee icon convenience icon cross hairs icon cross hairs highlight cycling dining dollar icon donut icon earthquake icon electronics euro falling rocks ferry firedept icon fishing flag icon forbidden icon gas stations golf icon grocery heliport icon highway icon hiker icon home garden business horsebackriding hospitals icon info-i info icon info circle icon lodging man icon marina mechanic motorcycling mountains movies open diamond parking lot parks icon pharmacy_rx phone picnic placemark circle placemark_circle_highlight placemark_ quare placemark_square_highlight play poi police icon polygon icon post office icon rail icon ranger station realestate road_shield1 road_shield2 road_shield3 ruler icon sailing icon salon schools shaded dot shopping ski snack bar icon square icon star icon subway icon swimming icon target icon terrain toilets trail tram triangle icon truck icon volcano icon water icon webcam wheel chair accessible woman icon yen icon sunny icon partly cloudy icon snowflake simple rainy icon thunderstorm icon


http://maps.google.com/mapfiles/kml/pushpin

blue pushpin icon green pushpin icon light blue pushpin pink pushpin purple pushpin red pushpin white pushpin yellow pushpin icon


http://maps.google.com/mapfiles/kml/paddle

1-lv 1 2-lv 2 3-lv 3 4-lv 4 5-lv 5 6-lv 6 7-lv 7 8-lv 8 9-lv 9 10-lv 10 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z blu-blank-lv blu-blank blu-circle-lv blu-circle blu-diamond-lv blu-diamond blu-square-lv blu-square blu-stars-lv blu-stars go-lv go grn-blank-lv grn-blank grn-circle-lv grn-circle grn-diamond-lv grn-diamond grn-square-lv grn-square grn-stars-lv grn-stars ltblu-blank ltblu-circle ltblu-diamond ltblu-square ltblu-stars pause-lv pause pink-blank pink-circle pink-diamond pink-square pink-stars purple-blank pin icon purple-circle-lv purple-circle purple-diamond-lv purple-diamond purple-square-lv purple-square purple-stars-lv purple-stars red-circle-lv red-circle red-diamond-lv red-diamond red-square-lv red-square red-stars-lv red-stars stop-lv stop wht-blank-lv wht-blank wht-circle-lv wht-circle wht-diamond-lv wht-diamond wht-square-lv wht-square wht-stars-lv wht-stars ylw-blank-lv ylw-blank ylw-circle-lv ylw-circle ylw-diamond-lv ylw-diamond ylw-square-lv ylw-square ylw-stars-lv ylw-stars orange blank icon orange circle icon orange diamon icon orange square icon orange stars icons route


http://earth.google.com/images/kml-icons/

track icon

Note: The track icons are treated special in Google Earth. If you specify to use the gx:Track extension as used for GPS-tracks and specify a Style using the http://earth.google.com/images/kml-icons/track-directional/track-0.png icon (shown above) then the icon is dynamically changed to appropriate icon using the computed compass heading from the previous position. The URL http://maps.google.com/mapfiles/kml/shapes/track.png can also be used in KML for the track icon style for the same behavior, but in this case the URL itself doesn't resolve if accessed directly in a web browser and results in a HTTP 404 not found error.


http://maps.google.com/mapfiles/kml/pal2

icon0 icon1 icon10 icon11 icon12 icon13 icon14 transparent icon icon16 icon17 icon18 icon19 icon2 icon20 icon21 icon22 icon23 icon24 icon25 icon26 icon27 icon28 icon29 church icon icon30 icon31 icon32 icon33 icon34 icon35 icon36 icon37 icon38 icon39 icon4 icon40 icon41 icon42 icon43 icon44 icon45 icon46 icon47 icon48 icon49 icon5 icon50 icon51 icon52 icon53 icon54 icon55 icon56 icon57 icon58 icon59 icon6 icon60 icon61 icon62 icon63 icon7 icon8 icon9


http://maps.google.com/mapfiles/kml/pal3

icon0 icon1 icon10 icon11 icon12 icon13 icon14 icon15 icon16 icon17 icon18 icon19 icon2 icon20 icon21 icon22 icon23 icon24 icon25 icon26 icon27 icon28 icon29 icon3 icon30 icon31 icon32 icon33 icon34 icon35 icon36 icon37 icon38 icon39 icon4 icon40 icon41 icon42 icon43 icon44 icon45 icon46 radiation icon icon48 icon49 icon5 icon50 icon51 icon52 icon53 icon54 icon55 icon56 icon57 icon58 icon59 icon6 icon60 icon61 icon62 icon63 icon7 icon8 icon9


http://maps.google.com/mapfiles/kml/pal4

icon0 icon1 icon10 icon11 icon12 icon13 icon14 icon15 icon16 icon17 icon18 icon19 icon2 icon20 icon21 icon22 icon23 icon24 icon25 icon26 icon27 icon28 icon29 icon3 icon30 icon31 icon32 icon33 icon34 icon35 icon36 icon37 icon38 icon39 icon4 icon40 icon41 icon42 icon43 icon44 icon45 icon46 icon47 icon48 icon49 icon5 icon50 icon51 icon52 icon53 icon54 icon55 icon56 icon57 icon58 icon59 icon6 icon60 icon61 icon62 icon63 icon7 icon8 icon9


http://maps.google.com/mapfiles/kml/pal5

icon0 icon0l icon1 icon10 icon11 icon12 icon13 icon14 icon15 icon16 icon16l icon17 icon17l icon18 icon18l icon19 icon19l icon1l icon2 icon20 icon20l icon21 icon21l icon22 icon22l icon23 icon23l icon24 icon24l icon25 icon25l icon26 icon26l icon27 icon27l icon28 icon28l icon29 icon29l icon3 icon30 icon30l icon31 icon31l icon32 icon32l icon33 icon33l icon34 icon34l icon35 icon35l icon36 icon36l icon37 icon37l icon38 icon38l icon39 icon39l icon4 icon40 icon40l icon41 icon41l icon42 icon42l icon43 icon43l icon44 icon44l icon45 icon45l icon46 icon46l icon47 icon47l icon48 icon48l icon49 icon49l icon5 icon50 icon50l icon51 icon51l icon52 icon52l icon53 icon53l icon54 icon54l icon55 icon55l icon56 icon56l icon57 icon57l icon58 icon58l icon59 icon59l icon6 icon60 icon60l icon61 icon61l icon62 icon62l icon63 icon63l icon7 icon8 icon8l icon9 icon9l


http://maps.google.com/mapfiles

arrow icon shadow traffic icon transparent arrow
0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30 33 36 39 42 45 48 51 54 57 60 63 66 69 72 75 78 81 84 87 90 93 96 99 102 105 108 111 114 117
0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30 33 36 39 42 45 48 51 54 57 60 63 66 69 72 75 78 81 84 87 90 93 96 99 102 105 108 111 114 117


Other misc icons

shipwreck icon 360cities icon animal paw icon


Notes:

1. The first four groups of icons above (shapes through kml-icons) are the "standard" Google Earth icons. These icons are part of Google Earth application and included in the client distribution.

Each of these icons have a default HotSpot orientation specified so the client knows where to place the icon with respect to the coordinates on the map. The origin of the coordinate system is in the lower left corner of the icon such that x=0, y=0 refers to the lower-left pixel in the icon image.

The pushpin icons, for example, have the hotspot defined at the lower-left corner of the icon.
Adding the pushpin icon to a Placemark automatically creates an IconStyle with following settings:

iconhotSpot iconStyle defintionNotes
yellow pushpin icon <hotSpot x="20" y="2" xunits="pixels" yunits="pixels"/> Hotspot at lower-left of icon at pin tip
<hotSpot x="54" y="42" xunits="pixels" yunits="pixels"/> Hotspot at upper-right of icon at arrow-head tip
<hotSpot x="32" y="1" xunits="pixels" yunits="pixels"/> Hotspot at bottom-center of icon

The default hotSpot for custom icons in KML is x=0.5, xunits=fraction, y=0.5, yunits=fraction which places the center of a custom icon at the point's location. If the custom icon implies an implicit hotspot such as having an arrow or some such callout then an explicit hotSpot *must* be defined in the IconStyle otherwise end-users may incorrectly assume the actual location relative to the icon is at a different place on the map.

2. The pal2 through pal5 icon groups were used by earlier versions of Google Earth and no longer part of the core icons. In fact, if you create a custom icon style with any of the pal image URLs then Google Earth will automatically remap the URL to one of the standard icons such as the following:

=>
=>

3. The standard icons, which are shown in the icon chooser dialog in Google Earth (shown as thumbnail below), are accessed locally (and not fetched over network). These standard icons include those in the shapes, pushpin, and paddle icon groups (e.g. http://maps.google.com/mapfiles/kml/shapes/bus.png).

Google Earth icon chooser screenshot

These URLs are treated as URIs (or aliases) to the corresponding file stored locally which is especially important for closed/standalone environments where the domain maps.google.com cannot be accessed but the icons are still displayed. That is one of the benefits of choosing one of the standard Google icons as opposed to custom icons.

4. Google Earth 3.0 used a set of 256x256 images for its default icons with URLs of a special form: root://icons/.... Within Google Earth program files location was a set of PNG images (palette-1.png, palette-2.png, etc.) from which KML can refer to a specific icon with an x and y offset and height/width of 32-pixels.

Example:

See palette-4.png image illustrated on the right. To use the red-square icon in your placemark, you would refer to x=0 and y=32 where the x=0/y=0 origin was located at the bottom-left of the image. Its URL and href value in KML would be represented as root://icons/palette-4.png?x=0&y=32&h=32&w=32.

To refer to the red flag icon in the 5-th column in the next to last row, you would use root://icons/palette-4.png?x=128&y=32&h=32&w=32 where x = 4 * 32 = 128 and so on.

This root:// notation is no longer supported in Google Earth and you must use the proper URL for the icon (e.g. http://maps.google.com/mapfiles/kml/pushpin/ylw-pushpin.png).

palette-4.png
palette-4.png

See Also

https://mapicons.nicolasmollet.com/ has a large collection of map icons.


Google Earth (TM) and Google Maps (TM) are registered trademarks of Google Inc. KML4Earth is not affiliated with Google.
All image screenshots from Google Earth are Copyright Google.

Created and maintained by jasonm1