How to create style libraries in ArcGIS

The styles and the symbols of the maps are one of the most left concepts in the vast majority of GIS works. Only in the field of online cartography is this visual element taken care of to attract attention in the viewers. And although we do not believe it, the appearance and symbology of a map says a lot about its author, it attracts the reader and helps to interpret and recognize the elements quickly.

Symbology is part of the style of the map. And, the maps do not stop being advertising for our eyes. Represent indistinctly, or by absence, the elements in the legend and on the map is one of the most common errors. Symbolizing elements with shades that are not appropriate or difficult to interpret is another of the most widespread faults. In all cases, the correct management of the symbolization can be improved and streamlined by resorting to the creation of own styles that avoid having to permanently work the symbology to get ArcMap to work for us.

How to build STYLE libraries

To avoid working permanently the same styles in different layers we can build our own collection of styles and archive them in a Style file. The management of this type of files will help us to have a fixed style gallery in ArcGIS and manually or automatically assign symbologies already created. Similarly, through codes, we can get ArcGIS symbolize styles massively from the moment of loading a layer as long as we have created our Style file.

To create our style library we must access the top menu of ArcMap and select the option Customize> Style Manager . Once inside we will select the Styles option located on the right side of the sale. A list of all the predefined symbology typologies that we have in ArcGIS will be shown to us. We can create a new one by selecting the Create New Style option .

We will see a new management window that will allow us to save the new Style file in the directory that we want. Once assigned a name and a route we can see the new group within our Style References window. In it we can start to manage and save the styles used in our maps.

After creating the Style file we can return to the view of any of the ArcGIS applications and start managing the symbology of our maps. Paying attention to the aspect of the symbology we can identify each element with a plot and color. 

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