Draft

mapsf.gui: a shiny app to make maps with R

mapsf
shiny
Authors

Timothée Giraud

Matthieu Viry

Hugues Pecout

Published

June 30, 2026

mapsf.gui is a shiny application that provides an interactive interface for creating thematic maps using the mapsf package. It automatically generates the corresponding R code to reproduce the map identically.
mapsf.gui is useful for familiarizing yourself with mapsf and learning about its main features.

mapsf.gui was presented for the first time at the main French R-related event, les Rencontres R, in June 2026. See the abstract and the slides (in French).

Features

  • Load and manage multiple spatial datasets.
  • Select different types of thematic maps.
  • Customize classification methods, color palettes etc.
  • Manage various map elements such as legends, title, scale and north arrow.
  • Discover the corresponding code in real-time as you construct maps.
  • Copy the R code for reproducibility of the maps created.
  • Download maps as images (PNG or SVG).

Demo

Installation

You can install the stable version of mapsf.gui from CRAN:

install.packages('mapsf.gui')

Alternatively, you can install the development version of mapsf.gui from r-universe with:

install.packages("mapsf.gui", repos = c('https://riatelab.r-universe.dev', 'https://cloud.r-project.org'))

Quick start-up

To get started quickly, you can use the bundled mapsf dataset with the following example:

com <- mapsf::mf_get_mtq('polygons')
pts <- mapsf::mf_get_mtq('points')
mapsf.gui::run_app(data = list(communes = com, points = pts))

Limitations and alternatives

Please note that not all of mapsf’s features are available through the GUI. You can check out mapsf documentation (as well as the various help panels in mapsf.gui) to learn more about this.

Moreover, mapsf.gui is not intended to replace dedicated thematic cartography software. If you’re not interested in learning R / mapsf code or in reproducibility, we also develop Magrit: a Web-based thematic cartography app that offers a comprehensive experience for learning or teaching cartography itself.