Time for action – creating a simple polygon style

Since you were a kid you have been familiarized with the political maps of the world. Countries were rendered with brown boundaries and there were different colors for each country. Isn't this a wonderful example for your first polygon styling? We will create a map with all features rendered with the same color and outline, to start with a simple example, but we will return to this style in the thematic mapping section:

Note

You may wonder how many different colors you need to build a map where each adjacent country doesn't share the same color. The answer is not really trivial, indeed it is a surprisingly little number. Four different colors are enough for a map with any number of polygonal features. Take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_color_theorem for more information.

1. Take the Rivers.xml file, make a copy to Countries.xml, and then edit the new file in your text editor.

2. Go to line 9 and replace the text inside the Name element...