Tool guide & FAQ
Updated September 20, 2026
The three projects start from different questions. Atlas uses color to explore the world, personality questionnaires help organize self-observations, and the travel map records your relationship with places. This guide explains how to begin, keep your work, and interpret the tools’ limits.
01 / Atlas: from coloring to data maps
- Choose a layer and scope
- Add colors or values
- Save a project and image
Open Atlas Studio, search for a place, and select a painting level such as country, state, province, or local area. This level determines how much one action changes. Choose countries for broad comparisons, then switch to smaller units for detail. Try a few regions before applying a large change; use undo if the result is not what you intended.
Free coloring works for your own categories, plans, or thematic illustrations. Language and religion layers display existing classifications. Mixed colors or stripes indicate coexistence, not exact population shares. In the data layer, import a CSV and set units, bounds, and a color scale. Before comparing percentages or other indicators, make sure their dates, denominators, and units agree. A missing value is not automatically zero.
Export an image to download a shareable PNG. Save a project to download a JSON file you can import later and continue editing. An image preserves the appearance, not the complete editable state, so keep both for important work. CSV transfers numeric data and is not a substitute for a full project backup.
02 / Personality: bring results back to experience
- Choose a language and questionnaire
- Answer from everyday experience
- Read and reflect
In Personality Explorer, choose the cognitive-function or Enneagram questionnaire. Answer with your usual behavior over time in mind. Separate what you generally do from what you wish you did. When a question is difficult, recall a specific situation instead of guessing which answer will produce a preferred type.
The cognitive-function questionnaire draws on Jungian typology and later type discussions involving thinking, feeling, sensation, intuition, and inward or outward orientation. The Enneagram questionnaire organizes possible motivations and tendencies through a nine-type framework. They ask different questions, so their results do not need to match. Site scores are not a clinically standardized assessment or an officially certified MBTI report.
Start by noting everyday examples that fit and do not fit your result. Mood, interpretation, and experience can affect answers. A single result should not become a permanent identity or a basis for judging someone’s competence or making medical decisions. To keep a result, save its result-page URL or take a screenshot; review any information it reveals before sharing.
03 / Travel: record your relationship with places
- Choose regions and levels
- Mark your experiences
- Export or share
Open the East Asia Travel Map and read its level descriptions before marking regions. It records your own experience; it does not verify passports, live location, or official entry records. People may use different personal standards, so agree on the same level definitions before comparing maps.
Adjust the language, geographic scope, and boundary display for viewing or sharing. Export a PNG for a post or a visual record. The sharing control creates a URL containing the current records and display settings. Someone with that link can view what it contains: remove travel information you prefer not to publish first. Local browser storage helps you continue later, but keeping a separate link or image is still useful.
Where the map data comes from
Atlas builds its local map units from an existing cartographic base, including historical EU5 geometry and classification data, then layers modern administrative groupings and language and religion revisions on top. Unreviewed base data is not equivalent to a present-day census. Updates consult censuses, local references, Unicode CLDR, Pew, and other sources. A national statistic cannot be treated as an exact percentage for every small map unit.
The travel map uses simplified boundaries and place names from sources including JapanEx, DataV, Natural Earth, GeoNames, and Taiwan’s g0v boundary data. Simplification affects coastlines, islands, and small regions. These maps support interactive exploration, not surveying, navigation, or boundary determination. The links below are selected source entry points; check the original publisher for each dataset’s date, license, and terms.
Common questions
Do I need an account? Does my work follow me to another computer?
The three tools currently open without a studio account. Locally saved maps and preferences belong to the current browser and origin, with no automatic cross-device synchronization. Use the relevant export or sharing features to transfer work.
Where are Atlas projects saved on the old main domain?
In the original browser, open the old-origin map workspace, save the project, then import it on the new Atlas subdomain. Records may no longer be available if you cleared site data or changed browsers.
How do image exports, projects, and sharing links differ?
Images are for viewing. Atlas JSON projects preserve editable work. A travel sharing link contains the state when it was created; generate a new link after changing the map. Old links do not automatically update.
What if the map is blank, slow, or cannot export?
Allow the data to finish loading, check your connection, and retry in an up-to-date browser. Atlas downloads map data and uses WebGL; devices that restrict graphics acceleration may have trouble displaying it. A useful report includes your browser, device, page URL, and steps that reproduce the problem.
Feedback, sharing, and scope
Send corrections or problems to [email protected], including the tool, place name, steps, and a source we can check. Data revisions require comparing dates and geographic scope. Unverified suggestions should remain open questions rather than become definitive claims. Back up important work and respect source-data terms and other people’s rights when publishing exports.
Read our privacy notice for data handling, or About Zero Studio for our approach and directions for improvement.