Point, line, and polygon styles

USA weather stations, highways, and states displayed using symbols and simple renderers

What are point, line, and polygon styles?

You can style and display points, lines, and polygons in a map or scene by defining symbols for features. To style features in a feature layer, you define symbols and apply them with a renderer. Styling points, lines, and polygons is also known as styling features because every feature contains a geometry and is styled with a symbol.

There are many different types of symbols you can use to style features. The type of symbol you use depends on the type of visualization you would like to create. 2D symbols are used to display features in a map, and 3D symbols are used to display features in a scene. The most common type of symbol is a simple symbol.

This document covers how to use different symbols and a renderer to style features in a map or scene.

How to style points, lines, and polygons

In general, there are two ways to style features:

Apply symbols to graphics: You use this approach when you need to display the location for temporary graphics in a map or scene. The symbol type must match the geometry type of the graphic. Learn more about how to create graphics in Graphics.
Apply a renderer (with symbols) to a data layer: You use this approach when you want to style all features in a data layer in a map or scene. A renderer defines the "rules" for applying symbols to features, and the symbols define the style used to display the feature. Learn more about layers that support features in Data layers.

Simple renderer

The most common type of renderer is a simple renderer. You use a simple renderer to style all of the features in a data layer the same way. Using a simple renderer, all visual properties of the symbol (e.g. size, color, opacity, texture, etc.) are fixed for each feature. The primary purpose of the visualization is to show where a feature is located, not specifics about the feature's attributes. For example, if you want to know the locations of weather stations, but you doen't need to know additional attribute information about each station, you should render all points with the same symbol.

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        const renderer = new SimpleRenderer({
          symbol: new SimpleMarkerSymbol({
            size: 4,
            color: [0, 255, 255],
            outline: null
          })
        });
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Symbols

The style for features in a map are defined by a symbol. The symbol should represent the data with either what the symbol represents or how the feature is related to other features with respect to location and the data attributes being mapped.

The symbol chosen for a layer depends on the view in which it is rendered (2D or 3D), and the geometry type of the features in the layer (point, polyline, polygon, or mesh).

2D Symbols

You use 2D symbols to style point, line, and polygon geometries and display them in a map. The main types are marker, picture, and text symbols. See below for more examples.

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const symbol = new SimpleMarkerSymbol({
  color: "rgba(0,128,155,0.8)",
  size: "10px",
  outline: new SimpleLineSymbol({
    width: 0.5,
    color: "rgba(255,255,255,0.3)"
  })
});

3D Symbols

You use 3D symbols to style point, line, polygon, and mesh geometries and display them in a scene. In a scene, you can choose between two types of symbols:

2D symbols such as marker symbols, line symbols and polygon fill symbols.
3D symbols such as 3D model symbols, path symbols and extruded polygon symbols.

See below for more examples.

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const pointSymbol = new PointSymbol3D({
  symbolLayers: [ new IconSymbol3DLayer({
    resource: { href: "pin.svg" },
    size: 15,
    material: {
      color: "#4c397f"
    },
    anchor: "bottom"
  })]
});

2D examples

Points

To visualize the location of point features in a map, set a simple marker symbol, picture marker symbol, or a CIM symbol in a simple renderer, and set the renderer on the layer. All features will display in the view with the same symbol.

This example visualizes the locations of weather stations.

Create a simple marker symbol and add it to a simple renderer.
Set the renderer to a data layer.

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        const renderer = new SimpleRenderer({
          symbol: new SimpleMarkerSymbol({
            size: 4,
            color: [0, 255, 255],
            outline: null
          })
        });
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Lines

To visualize the location of line features in a map, use a simple line symbol or a CIM symbol, and a simple renderer .

This example displays the locations of major highways using a single symbol.

Steps

Create a simple line symbol and add it to a simple renderer .
Set the renderer to the data layer.

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        const renderer = new SimpleRenderer({
          symbol: new SimpleLineSymbol({
            width: 1,
            color: "#fb12ff",
          }),
        })
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Polygons

To visualize the location of polygon features in a map, you can use a number of different symbol types such as a simple fill symbol, picture fill symbol, simple marker symbol, picture marker symbol, web style symbol, or a CIM symbol.

This example visualizes the borders of the states in the U.S. with very transparent polygons.

Steps

Create a simple fill symbol and add it to a simple renderer.
Set the renderer to the data layer.

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        const renderer = new SimpleRenderer({
          symbol: new SimpleFillSymbol({
            color: "rgba(249, 249, 199, .05)",
            outline: {
              color: "white",
              width: .15
            }
          })
        });
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3D examples

Points

To visualize the location of point features in a scene, set a marker symbol or a 3D model symbol in a simple renderer, and set the renderer on the layer. All features will display in the view with the same symbol. This example shows how to create a globe that displays cities all over the world. The symbol for the cities is a pin marker.

Steps

Create a marker symbol and add it to a simple renderer .
Apply the renderer to the data layer so that each feature is displayed with the marker symbol.

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        const renderer = new SimpleRenderer({
          symbol: new PointSymbol3D({
            symbolLayers: [
              new IconSymbol3DLayer({
                resource: {
                  href:
                    "https://static.arcgis.com/arcgis/styleItems/Icons/web/resource/Pushpin3.svg",
                },
                size: 15,
                material: {
                  color: "#4c397f",
                },
                anchor: "bottom",
              }),
            ],
          }),
        });
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Lines

To visualize the location of line features in a scene, set a line symbol or a 3D path symbol in a simple renderer, and set the renderer on the layer. This example shows how to style the streets in Manhattan using a path symbol.

Steps

Create a path symbol with a width and a height of 10 meters.
Add it to a simple renderer.
Apply the renderer to the data layer.

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        const renderer = new SimpleRenderer({
          symbol: new LineSymbol3D({
            symbolLayers: [
              new PathSymbol3DLayer({
                profile: "quad",
                material: {
                  color: [46, 255, 238],
                },
                width: 10,
                height: 10,
                join: "miter",
                cap: "round",
                anchor: "bottom",
                profileRotation: "all",
              }),
            ],
          }),
        })
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Polygons

To visualize polygon features in a scene, use a fill symbol or extrude the polygon based on real-world heights. The example below extrudes building footprints with a fixed height to display schematic buildings in a city.

Steps

Create an extruded polygon symbol and add it to a simple renderer.
Apply the renderer to the data layer.

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        const renderer = new SimpleRenderer({
          symbol: new PolygonSymbol3D({
            symbolLayers: [
              new ExtrudeSymbol3DLayer({
                material: {
                  color: "#ffc53d",
                },
                size: 10,
                edges: {
                  type: "solid",
                  color: "#a67400",
                  size: 1.5,
                },
              }),
            ],
          }),
        })
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Tutorials

Style a feature layer

Use symbols and renderers to style feature layers.

Style layers in a web map

Use Map Viewer to style layers in a web map.

Map Viewer

Services

Feature service

Add, update, delete, and query feature data.

API support

	Data-driven visualization	3D visualization
ArcGIS Maps SDK for JavaScript
ArcGIS Maps SDK for Kotlin
ArcGIS Maps SDK for Swift
ArcGIS Maps SDK for Java
ArcGIS Maps SDK for .NET
ArcGIS Maps SDK for Qt
ArcGIS API for Python	¹	²

Full supportPartial supportNo support

1. Define renderers with JavaScript.
2. Supports web scenes only.

Tools

Map Viewer

Create, explore, and share web maps for 2D applications.

Scene Viewer

Create, explore, and share web scenes for 3D applications.

Vector tile style editor

Style vector tile basemap layers for applications.

Mapping APIs and location services

Point, line, and polygon styles

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