A map is one of the few elements on a website that visitors actually interact with instead of just scrolling past. They click pins, they read labels, they zoom in on the one location that matters to them. Which means the way a marker looks, and the way it labels itself, is doing real communication work, not decoration.
In Pro 10.1.04, we’ve improved two of the tools responsible for that! First, our Marker Creator, which is how you design custom map icons, and second Point Label Styles, a new styling system for the text and callouts attached to your markers and points of interest.
Marker Creator V3 adds a genuinely new way to build icons, filling them with real images rather than flat colour/gradients, and Point Label Styles introduces a structured “Card” layout that replaces plain text with something that looks intentional.
What’s New in Marker Creator V3
If you haven’t used it before, the Marker Creator (sometimes called the Marker Icon Editor) is the built-in design tool for building custom map pins, shape, fill, stroke, shadow, and icon overlays, without leaving the map editor or touching an external image editor. Our V3 release of the Marker Creator is the biggest revision it’s had!
Fill markers with a photo, logo, or avatar
The core new capability is that marker shapes can now be filled with an actual image instead of a flat colour or gradient. Upload a headshot, a product photo, or a company logo, and it fills the pin shape, cropped and centered automatically.
This isn’t a special one-off preset bolted on the side. Image fill is a real option alongside every existing fill type, available across every shape already in the editor, so it works with however you’re already designing.
Rotate the marker body
Shapes can now be rotated, opening up angled pin designs, directional markers, for instance, or simply a less rigid, more dynamic look than every pin sitting perfectly upright.
Custom resolution, sharper icons
Previously, markers rendered at a fixed set of sizes, standard or retina. V3 adds a custom resolution option that renders the shape natively at whatever size you specify, instead of stretching a smaller export and losing sharpness. This matters most for retina displays and for markers used larger than the default pin size.
Gradient strokes & Download icons
Gradient fills already existed, and V3 extends gradients to strokes (the outline around a shape) too, for outlines that shift color rather than sitting flat.
Along with this, once you’ve designed a marker, you can download it as a standalone image file in one click, useful for reusing it outside the map (in an email, a print flyer, a favicon, wherever), or just for keeping a local copy of your design.
A new workspace
The editor’s controls used to live in one long scrolling panel. They’re now split into four tabs, Style, Shape, Effects, and Overlays, with a larger live preview alongside them, so you can see the result of a change immediately without hunting for the right control first.
Marker Creator V2 vs V3
| Capability | V2 | V3 |
|---|---|---|
| Flat colour & gradient fills | ✅ | ✅ |
| Fill a shape with a photo, logo, or avatar | ❌ | ✅ New |
| Download a designed marker | ❌ | ✅ New |
| Export resolution | Fixed sizes | ✅ Custom resolution |
| Gradient strokes/outlines | ❌ (fill only) | ✅ New |
| Rotate marker shape | ❌ | ✅ New |
| Editor layout | Single scrolling panel | Tabbed: Style / Shape / Effects / Overlays |
| Live preview | Small | Larger, always visible |
Use Cases for the New Marker Creator
The Marker Creator turns generic maps into rich visual experiences across a variety of applications. For real estate and rentals, property photos can fill each pin to transform a standard map into an interactive gallery.
Organizations and directories can feature individual headshots for staff locations, while multi-location brands and franchises can embed their logos into consistent pin shapes to strengthen brand identity.
Additionally, event planners can highlight sponsors directly on venue maps, and fleet or delivery services can utilize custom vehicle icons that rotate to show live directions of travel.
Point label card styles are here!
Two related features on your map can carry a label: a Point Label (a standalone label you can place anywhere, independent of a marker) and a Marker Label (a caption attached to a specific marker). Until now, both rendered the same way: plain text, sitting next to the pin.
You can now choose a Card style for point labels and marker labels, a small, structured callout with a title, an optional subheading, and an optional icon, styled as a clean card rather than bare text on the map background.
Cards automatically pick up your Maps > Styling settings (colours, fonts, corner radius, etc.), so they match the rest of your map without any extra design work.
How Marker Labels and Point Labels Now Work Together
Let’s take a second to look at how we have changed what Marker Labels are capable of, without changing how you use them day to day.
Point Labels and Marker Labels are still two distinct tools for two different jobs! Point Labels mark an arbitrary spot with its own text, and Marker Labels caption a specific marker. What’s changed is what’s underneath them: Marker Labels have been rebuilt to use the same rendering engine as Point Labels, instead of each map provider (Google Maps, Leaflet, OpenLayers) handling marker text in its own, inconsistent way.
The practical effect of this update brings complete consistency and refined design controls to Marker Labels across all platforms. By inheriting the new Card style originally built for Point Labels, Marker Labels now deliver a uniform appearance and performance regardless of whether your map runs on Google Maps, Leaflet, or OpenLayers. Alongside graduating out of beta into full official release status, this rebuild introduces key styling controls, including customizable font colour, outline colour, font size, and flexible layering to position labels above or below marker icons.
If you already use Marker Labels, nothing about your existing setup breaks, you get the new Card option and controls in the same place you already configure them.
Card-style labels make essential information visible at a glance across a range of interactive map scenarios. On store and facility maps, they instantly display operational status,like branch names paired with opening hour, without requiring a click.
For logistics and order tracking, dynamic status callouts can attach directly to moving markers to give real-time updates. When paired with avatar-fill markers in staff directories, they present clean name-and-role cards beside headshots, while real estate and product maps benefit from concise title-and-subheading layouts for pricing, categories, or availability.
Finally, campus and venue maps can streamline wayfinding by combining building names with key details like room numbers, departments, or operating hours.
Combining Both Features
Marker Creator V3 and Point Label Styles were built separately, but they’re designed to be used together. An avatar-fill marker (a person’s photo, cropped into a pin) paired with a Card-style label (their name as the title, their role as the subheading) produces something that reads like a mini profile, built entirely from settings, no external design tool required.
The same pattern works for a property photo marker paired with a price/status card, a logo marker paired with a “now open” card, or a vehicle icon paired with a live status card. The two features share a visual language — your site’s existing map styling — so anything you build with them looks consistent by default.
