Legend

The legend explains the colors, sizes and symbols on the map. Icon Map Pro builds it from the way each layer is really styled, so it stays in step with your formatting.

Add a legend

1. In the Format pane, switch on the Legend card.
2. Choose a Position: one of the four corners of the map.
3. Type a Title. It is the label of the button that folds and unfolds the legend.

The legend lists every layer that is switched on and can be explained. To leave a layer out, expand Legend labels and switch off its in legend setting.

What appears in the legend

The legend has one group for each layer, headed by the layer's title when Show layer titles is on. What a group shows depends on the layer and how it is styled.

Cluster group swatches are listed in the Order set for the Cluster Group field. See Cluster order.

A group with several categories starts folded: it shows a few swatches without names, then "+N" and an arrow. Select the arrow to expand the group and list every category with its name.

When a layer has more entries than Max categories, the list is cut short and a note such as "+ 8 more" is added.

Colors from conditional formatting

When a layer's color is set with conditional formatting (fx), Power BI gives the map only the finished color of each row. It does not pass on the rule, its colors or the field it is based on. The legend works backward from the colors it receives, and each layer's mode decides what it shows:

Set the mode for each layer in Conditional formatting legends.

Swatches are labeled with the number of items of that color, for example "12 items". Items that no rule colors keep the layer's own color and are listed as Other. To name the categories, give the layer a description in Legend labels: select fx, then Field value, and pick the field that names each category. A layer with a description lists one entry for each description and does not use its mode.

To find the measure behind a gradient, Auto compares the colors with the size and weight fields and the tooltips in the visual. It needs at least 8 colored items, and it uses a field only when the colors clearly follow it. The gradient is then captioned with the field's name and labeled with the lowest and highest values on the map. To tell the map which field to use, set the layer's gradient field.

Gradient mode

Changed in 1.1.0.11

With the mode set to Gradient, the legend always shows a gradient, even when the map shows only a few items or a single color:

• When you set a gradient field and at least 2 items are colored, the gradient is labeled with that field's lowest and highest values on the map.
• Without a gradient field, the map looks for the measure the colors follow, as Auto does. It accepts as few as 2 items, but with fewer than 8 it uses a field only if no other field fits as well.
• When no field can be found, for example because the measure behind the fx rule is not in the visual, the legend shows the colors on the map as a gradient. The ends are labeled Low and High, and the lighter color is at the Low end. A gradient that passes through a middle color, such as red to white to blue, keeps that color in the middle.
• When the map shows one color, the gradient is a solid bar of that color.

Type min label and max label to replace the end labels with your own text, for example "0%" and "100%".

Gradient applies only to layers where you choose it. Layers on Auto, Categories or None show what they showed in 1.1.0.10.

Show legends in the layer control

Display mode chooses where legends are drawn:

In layer control needs the layer control switched on: Format pane > Controls > Layer control > Show layer control. Without it the legend falls back to a panel. See Map controls.

Settings

Legend

Left at its default, the title shows "Legend" in the report's language. A title you type is shown as you typed it.

Legend labels

This group appears when at least one layer that can be in the legend is switched on. Each layer gets up to three settings, named after the layer.

Conditional formatting legends

These settings tune how fx colors are turned into legend entries. They are offered for Circles, Icons, Esri features, Shapes (from data), Lines, Shapes (from files) and Vector tiles. When Shapes (from files) layers are used as levels, the settings are labeled Shapes (all levels), for example Shapes (all levels) mode.

Legends for reference layers

New in 1.1.0.11

File reference layers have a legend entry built from their Format pane colors. WMS and ArcGIS reference layers bring their own legends, read from the service that publishes them.

An ArcGIS layer bound to data that uses Use ArcGIS Symbology also shows its ArcGIS symbols in the legend, in place of the colors from the Format pane.

Each of these layers has two settings under Legend labels:

Things to know:

• A WMS legend is shown only for a layer that needs no sign-in, or whose key travels in the link. A layer that signs in another way has no legend.
• A hidden WMS or ArcGIS layer has no legend, and its legend follows the layer's visible zoom range.
• On the Modern engine, reference layers also have a row in the layer control, so readers can show and hide them.
• ArcGIS legends are read from the service after the map draws, so they can appear a moment after the rest of the legend.

See Raster tiles, WMTS and WMS and ArcGIS layers.

Tips and limits

• The legend sits in a corner of the map and cannot be dragged. If it covers a control, move it to another corner with Position.
• The layer control lets readers show and hide layers. Their choices last for the session only and are not saved with the report.
• Use {layer} title to replace technical names such as Esri features or Overlay 1 with words your readers know.

Related

• Map controls
• Conditional formatting
• Data labels