Create Freehand Drawings in Google Maps

draw on google maps

Scribble Maps is an interesting mash-up that turns Google Maps into an online whiteboard.

It adds common drawing and painting tools such as pencils, lines and colored brushes to the Google Maps interfaces so you can easily sketch freehand drawings, insert text, or even add custom shapes anywhere on the map.

You can then embed the final drawing on a web page as a Flash Widget or Save it as a KML file to view your sketch directly in Google Earth. Hat tip Google Maps Mania.

Scribble Maps may look like a fun app but there are some useful applications. For instance, you can create detailed driving directions to your home by adding annotations to a Google Map. Or if you are going hitchhiking, you can plot the exact trail on Google Maps and share that map will fellow hitchhikers.

Scribble Maps uses the Flash API of Google Maps and can cause your browser to slow down. QuikMaps is another good alternative to Scribble Maps that uses the JavaScript API of Google Maps.

How to Draw in Google Earth

If you are looking for something similar in Google Earth, try Earth Paint - it’s a free plugin that adds painting and drawing capabilities in Google Earth.

The tool adds a variety of drawing tools such as a freehand pencil, ellipse, rectangle, polygon, and text tool. When a drawing is complete, you can publish it as a transparent overlay to Google Earth.

google earth drawing

Amit Agarwal

Amit Agarwal

Google Developer Expert, Google Cloud Champion

Amit Agarwal is a Google Developer Expert in Google Workspace and Google Apps Script. He holds an engineering degree in Computer Science (I.I.T.) and is the first professional blogger in India.

Amit has developed several popular Google add-ons including Mail Merge for Gmail and Document Studio. Read more on Lifehacker and YourStory

0

Awards & Titles

Digital Inspiration has won several awards since it's launch in 2004.

Google Developer Expert

Google Developer Expert

Google awarded us the Google Developer Expert award recogizing our work in Google Workspace.

ProductHunt Golden Kitty

ProductHunt Golden Kitty

Our Gmail tool won the Lifehack of the Year award at ProductHunt Golden Kitty Awards in 2017.

Microsoft MVP Alumni

Microsoft MVP Alumni

Microsoft awarded us the Most Valuable Professional (MVP) title for 5 years in a row.

Google Cloud Champion

Google Cloud Champion

Google awarded us the Champion Innovator title recognizing our technical skill and expertise.

Email Newsletter

Sign up for our email newsletter to stay up to date.

We will never send any spam emails. Promise.