v7.1

Sneak preview: London station styles

Shannon Turner

Dec 11, 2024 — 4 min read

Map credit: adapted from https://metromapmaker.com/map/Z6BYQ8S1

Until version 6 of Metro Map Maker, there was only one station style available: the thick circles of Washington DC (and bullseyes for transfer stations).

Version 6 added several new styles:

Rectangles, which are drawn as the line's color on thin lines and drawn as black and white markers on thick lines, and connect neighboring stations together
Rounded rectangles, which work similarly to rectangles but with rounded corners
Circles (thin), which have a thin black outline on a white circle and also connect neighboring stations together
Circles (large), which look identical to Washington DC's station markers but use the line they're drawn on's color
Circles (medium) and circles (small), which use small circular station markers, and a white outline for transfer stations

All of these station styles could be mixed and matched together even before line widths could be mixed and matched in version 7.

But the most frequently requested station style is London. That's not surprising – the London Tube Map is iconic, perhaps the most recognizable transit system in the world.

So I'm very pleased to share a sneak preview of an update I've been working on. Soon you'll be able to make a map in London style with just a click!

In Metro Map Maker, you can change all of a map's station marker styles in one click

London will be the only new station style added in version 7.1, but you can expect more station styles in future releases. When I asked a few months ago on Reddit what features you'd like to see, the most votes was for additional station styles.

I've been getting lots of inspiration from Mark Ovenden's Transit Maps of the World as well as his new book Iconic Transit Maps, and I'm definitely planning to add more station and line styles in future versions of Metro Map Maker!

Adding London-style station markers was a bit complex – there's actually a lot of rules that the station markers follow, and some modifications I needed to make in order to make the markers look good when used in combination with a variety of line widths.

For example, London-style station markers will be drawn a bit larger when the line is wide, so that they're easier to see.

Another difference is that London-style station markers are the only station style (so far) that will be drawn differently based on your station's name orientation. Since London's station markers aren't symmetrical, I needed some way to control which side of the line they're drawn on.

Changing the Station Name Orientation will change which side of the line that London-style station markers are drawn on.

The easiest part of London-style stations is actually the transfer stations, although making them connect does add a bit of complexity. In order to connect two London-style stations together, they must be transfer stations, because the Tube Map has a colored notch for non-transfer stations that service multiple lines.

London-style station markers are also drawn differently if they're capping the end of a line, compared to if they're in the middle of a line:

Epping station here caps the end of the line, and is drawn differently than Theydon Bois

This is all a lot more complex than Washington DC's symmetrical station markers, which don't connect¹, always take the full width and height of the grid's square, and only have one variant (the bullseye for transfer stations).

I'm excited to release this new station style in the 7.1 release, and I hope you'll enjoy it!

The official WMATA map's station markers do actually connect, which is visible (but subtle) on stations like Smithsonian which straddle the Silver, Blue, and Orange lines.