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TrueSize Tutorial: Every Feature Explained
TrueSize shows the real size of any country, state, city, island, lake or historical empire by letting you drag it across a map without distorting its area. This tutorial explains every feature, from your first search to posters, historical borders, other planets and map games.
The TrueSize map with the ribbon open on the Home tab.
A first tour: search for countries, line them up on the equator, then add the Roman Empire of 200 AD from the timeline.
The ribbon: six tabs hold everything
Every tool lives in a floating ribbon at the top of the map. It has six tabs. Click a tab to see its buttons.
The six tabs of the ribbon.
| Tab | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Home | Search box, the Modern/Historical switch (opens the timeline), Flags, Labels, Select, Divide, Merge, Remove |
| Style | Map type and Skin pickers, Customize, Visuals, Reset, Globe, Terrain, Seafloor |
| Tools | Stats, Find by flag, Distance, Bearing, Population, Draw, Poster, Zoom in, Zoom out |
| Fun | Challenge, Flags (the Flag Quiz), Split (Split the People), Nukes, Compare, Living Earth, Planets, Grid, Size, North, Radio |
| Advanced | Share, Load, Import, Export |
| Help | Examples, Tutorial, About, Keyboard, Reddit, Support |
You can collapse the ribbon with Collapse to see more of the map. A small badge shows how many regions are loaded, for example "7 loaded".
Keyboard shortcuts for the ribbon
Press Alt (Option on a Mac) to show a letter on each tab. Press the tab letter, then the letter on the action you want. The tab letters are H for Home, S for Style, T for Tools, F for Fun, A for Advanced and E for Help. Alt+Q jumps straight to the search box. The full list is on the keyboard shortcuts page.
Quick start in 5 steps
- Open the TrueSize map. It starts with seven regions arranged over Africa.
- Type a name in the search box on the Home tab and pick a result to add it. See selecting countries.
- Drag a region to another place. Its true area stays the same, so you see how big it really is. See moving and comparing.
- Hold R while dragging to rotate it, or press F to flip it.
- Click Share on the Advanced tab to copy a link to your map. See sharing and exporting.
All tutorial pages
Pick a topic. Each page explains one feature step by step.
Getting started
Search and add countries, states, cities, continents and more.
Drag, rotate, flip and compare regions at their true size.
Change map types, skins, terrain, the globe and the grid.
Turn any place into a printable poster or wallpaper.
Share a link and import or export map data.
Explore
See borders by year and compare empires with today's countries.
Place countries on the Moon, Mars, Pluto and other worlds.
Compare natural features with countries.
Load a whole alliance at once and compare its size.
Explore where languages and language families are spoken.
Live wind, ocean currents, aurora and satellite imagery.
See the reach of a bomb over any place at true scale.
Browse all 34 skins, from dark to vintage to neon.
Tools
Find a flag by picture, colors or description.
Measure great-circle distance and direction between two points.
Count how many people live inside a circle or shape.
Draw your own area or reshape an existing region.
Split a region into its parts and combine them again.
Games
Guess which of two regions is bigger.
Name the region that owns each flag.
Cut a place in half by population.
Help
Every shortcut for the ribbon, map, search and timeline.
Help improve the data for everyone.
Use TrueSize on iPhone and Android.
Small tools worth knowing
- Grid (Fun): draws parallels and meridians, with the equator in red and the prime meridian in blue.
- Stats (Tools): shows the total area and total population of everything loaded.
- Size (Fun): turns true size off so you can see the normal Mercator distortion.
- North (Fun): chooses between realistic rotation when you move over the sphere and keeping north up.
- Labels (Home): shows or hides region names on the map.
- Radio (Fun): plays live radio from TuneJourney while you explore.
- Support (Help): ways to support TrueSize.
Want ideas first?
The examples hub answers popular questions such as how big the USA is on the Moon, and each answer opens the matching map in TrueSize.
Next: start with selecting countries.