Azure maps in PowerBI: colour dominance issue

Question

Azure maps in PowerBI: colour dominance issue

Thomas van der Sluis 0

From the mandatory map-change from Bing visuals to Azure in Microsoft PowerBI that will happen in November 2025, I have come into some issues. In the Azure maps, certain colours are made dominant, which distorts the representation of the data. This occurs when an existing Bing map is automatically updated to Azure.

It seems that Azure has some colours that it deems dominant. Suddenly blue in innovation and pink in sustainability seem to be very dominant. They are not in the data however, if you zoom in they are also not. (see fifth image)

Innovation map bing.png

Innovation map azure.png

Sustainability map bing.png

Sustainability map azure.png

Sustainability map azure zoomed in.png

We have reached out to Microsoft Support helpdesk and have been trying out their fixes for over a month, without result. Is there any way to make sure the colours show a representative sample in Azure, like it did in Bing? Any ideas?

A lot of the proposed fixes by Microsoft helpdesk are data-related, even though the data has not changed. We've also given them the PBI-files and they said they would fix it and then explain to us how we could do that for our other dashboards, but have failed to do so. (instead of fixing, they responded again with a non-relevant response)

Proposed fixes by Microsoft (which failed to fix the issue):

Increasing Bubble size
Sorting data points (which leads to dominance of other colours)
Changing colour schemes
They say it was caused by increase in data-points (not true, maps have the same amount of data(points) - "Seems like the Azure map is returning many more data points." -> not true
Reducing bubble transparency
Changing bubble colours (more difference)
Turn labels on and off
Increasing frame of the map
The order in which you drag the data points
'azure maps are live, bing is not' -> I don't see how this was relevant for dominant colours

Manas Mohanty 11,690 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-10-01T13:59:55.3733333+00:00

Hi Thomas van der Sluis

Sorry for the trouble

It seems you are facing some issue in Azure Map due to color dominance

As per the images, Color density of pink and blue bubble in Azure map has become more brighter compared to Bing maps.

Agreed some of suggestions as work around (ignore the color density increase), cannot we just modify the colors as per our requirement.

https://samples.azuremaps.com/bubble-layer/bubble-layer-options

https://samples.azuremaps.com/bubble-layer/data-driven-bubble-layer-styling

You can map certain co-ordinate cluster for certain color with data driven layer styling actually.

Thank you
Thomas van der Sluis 0 Reputation points

2025-10-01T14:06:54.86+00:00

Hi. Thank you for your response.

In our case, clustering is not an option, since every company has a specific colour, that matches a theme. There are 11 of these, which makes combining them in one circle not possible.

Is there a way we can make Azure maps not view something as dominant? It's only when zoomed out that everything turns one colour, that is the strange part.
Manas Mohanty 11,690 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-10-08T16:17:15.1666667+00:00
Hi Thomas van der Sluis

I agree with transparency part suggested by Rbrunditt.

Here’s how you can set transparency for bubbles in Azure Maps, both in Power BI and in the Azure Maps Web SDK:

In Power BI (Azure Maps Visual)

Transparency is controlled in the Format pane under the Bubble Layer settings:

Select your Azure Maps visual in Power BI.

Go to Format pane → Layers → Bubble Layer.

Look for these options:

Shape → Transparency: Adjust the fill transparency of bubbles (0% = fully opaque, 100% = fully transparent).

Border → Transparency: Adjust the transparency of bubble outlines.

Recommended values for overlapping bubbles:

Fill Transparency: 30–50%

Border Transparency: 20–40%\ This ensures underlying bubbles remain visible and reduces dominance of the topmost bubble. [Add a bubb…soft Learn | free.blessedness.top]

Tip: If you have overlapping categories, also use the Legend bucket for color differentiation and combine it with transparency for better clarity. [community….rosoft.com]

In Azure Maps (Web SDK)

When adding a BubbleLayer in JavaScript, use the opacity property:

map.layers.add(new atlas.layer.BubbleLayer(dataSource, null, { radius: 6, color: "DodgerBlue", opacity: 0.5, // 50% transparency strokeColor: "LightSteelBlue", strokeWidth: 3, strokeOpacity: 0.5 // Optional: outline transparency }));

opacity controls the fill transparency of bubbles.

strokeOpacity controls the outline transparency. [samples.az…remaps.com], [Add a Bubb…soft Learn | free.blessedness.top]

Thank you
Thomas van der Sluis 0 Reputation points

2025-10-09T08:20:33.34+00:00

Thank you, Manas. We've tried the suggested fixes, but it doesn't help.

As you can see, the dominance is still present. The map is mostly blue, even though the blue theme only has 3.000 of the 60.000 data-points (5%). Even if Azure renders 30.000 of them, it shouldn't be this blue (this is more than 10%)
Thomas van der Sluis 0 Reputation points

2025-10-09T08:23:14.2733333+00:00

Thank you, Manas. We've tried the suggested fixes, but it doesn't help.

As you can see, the dominance is still present. The map is mostly blue, even though the blue theme only has 3.000 of the 60.000 data-points (5%). Even if Azure renders 30.000 of them, it shouldn't be this blue (this is more than 10%)

2 answers

Your answer

Manas Mohanty 11,690 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-10-01T13:59:55.3733333+00:00

Hi Thomas van der Sluis

Sorry for the trouble

It seems you are facing some issue in Azure Map due to color dominance

As per the images, Color density of pink and blue bubble in Azure map has become more brighter compared to Bing maps.

Agreed some of suggestions as work around (ignore the color density increase), cannot we just modify the colors as per our requirement.

https://samples.azuremaps.com/bubble-layer/bubble-layer-options

https://samples.azuremaps.com/bubble-layer/data-driven-bubble-layer-styling

You can map certain co-ordinate cluster for certain color with data driven layer styling actually.

Thank you
Thomas van der Sluis 0 Reputation points

2025-10-01T14:06:54.86+00:00

Hi. Thank you for your response.

In our case, clustering is not an option, since every company has a specific colour, that matches a theme. There are 11 of these, which makes combining them in one circle not possible.

Is there a way we can make Azure maps not view something as dominant? It's only when zoomed out that everything turns one colour, that is the strange part.
Manas Mohanty 11,690 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-10-08T16:17:15.1666667+00:00

Hi Thomas van der Sluis

I agree with transparency part suggested by Rbrunditt.

Here’s how you can set transparency for bubbles in Azure Maps, both in Power BI and in the Azure Maps Web SDK:

In Power BI (Azure Maps Visual)

Transparency is controlled in the Format pane under the Bubble Layer settings:

Select your Azure Maps visual in Power BI.

Go to Format pane → Layers → Bubble Layer.

Look for these options:

Shape → Transparency: Adjust the fill transparency of bubbles (0% = fully opaque, 100% = fully transparent).

Border → Transparency: Adjust the transparency of bubble outlines.

Recommended values for overlapping bubbles:

Fill Transparency: 30–50%

Border Transparency: 20–40%\ This ensures underlying bubbles remain visible and reduces dominance of the topmost bubble. [Add a bubb…soft Learn | free.blessedness.top]

Tip: If you have overlapping categories, also use the Legend bucket for color differentiation and combine it with transparency for better clarity. [community….rosoft.com]

In Azure Maps (Web SDK)

When adding a BubbleLayer in JavaScript, use the opacity property:

map.layers.add(new atlas.layer.BubbleLayer(dataSource, null, { radius: 6, color: "DodgerBlue", opacity: 0.5, // 50% transparency strokeColor: "LightSteelBlue", strokeWidth: 3, strokeOpacity: 0.5 // Optional: outline transparency }));

opacity controls the fill transparency of bubbles.

strokeOpacity controls the outline transparency. [samples.az…remaps.com], [Add a Bubb…soft Learn | free.blessedness.top]

Thank you
Thomas van der Sluis 0 Reputation points

2025-10-09T08:20:33.34+00:00

Thank you, Manas. We've tried the suggested fixes, but it doesn't help.

As you can see, the dominance is still present. The map is mostly blue, even though the blue theme only has 3.000 of the 60.000 data-points (5%). Even if Azure renders 30.000 of them, it shouldn't be this blue (this is more than 10%)
Thomas van der Sluis 0 Reputation points

2025-10-09T08:23:14.2733333+00:00

Thank you, Manas. We've tried the suggested fixes, but it doesn't help.

As you can see, the dominance is still present. The map is mostly blue, even though the blue theme only has 3.000 of the 60.000 data-points (5%). Even if Azure renders 30.000 of them, it shouldn't be this blue (this is more than 10%)

Answer 1

rbrundritt 21,496 Microsoft Employee Moderator

Looking closely at your screenshots there are a couple of things I noticed.

You have no transparency set in the Azure maps bubble layer, so this will make the topmost data much more dominant looking.
The Bing Maps images have a lot less data represented. The Bing Maps visual will only render the first 3,500 points, while the Azure Maps visual will render the first 30,000. So, it's very likely that the disconnect you are seeing is simply due to a lot more data being displayed, and it just happens that more blue data points are later in your data set and weren't being displayed before in Bing Maps.

Thomas van der Sluis 0 Reputation points

2025-10-02T10:12:50.9433333+00:00

Thanks for you reply.

We have tried adding transparency. It did not help, only made the graph less sharp, but still with dominant colours.

I understand that a lot more data is represented. However, this doesn't explain the dominancy. As shown below, blue/pink should be the least dominant.

We have tried selecting small regions to see if less data fixes the problem. Below 3000 data-points, the problem is gone. Above 3000 data-points, the dominancy problem is there. We have a lot more data-points than that.

Also when you zoom in a lot, the problem is gone.

I understand that not every data-point can be shown, and that's fine, but I want the colours to be representative. It's not clear why Azure maps find the Blue innovation colour (Water in the graph above) to be the most dominant of them all.

Answer 2

IoTGirl 3,811 Microsoft Employee Moderator

Please ask your questions regarding Maps in Power BI in the Power BI forums. The people that support that custom experience are available at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/forums/searchpage/tab/message?advanced=false&allow_punctuation=false&filter=location&location=category:powerbi&q=Maps and you can see if your question has already been asked.

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Azure maps in PowerBI: colour dominance issue

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