Highlight country, continent and state polygons

The pygmt.Figure.coast method can highlight country polygons via the dcw parameter. It accepts the country code (following the 2-letter ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 convention) or full country name and can draw its borders and add a color to its landmass. It’s also possible to define multiple countries at once by separating the individual names with commas.

import pygmt

fig = pygmt.Figure()

fig.coast(
    region=[-12, 32, 34, 72],
    # Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area lon0/lat0/horizon/width
    projection="A10/52/25/6c",
    land="gray",
    water="white",
    frame="afg",
    dcw=[
        # Great Britain (country code) with seagreen land
        "GB+gseagreen",
        # Italy with a red border
        "IT+p0.5p,red3",
        # Spain with a magenta dashed border
        "ES+p0.5p,magenta4,-",
        # Romania with a black dotted border
        "RO+p0.75p,black,.",
        # Germany with orange land and a blue border
        "DE+gorange+p0.5p,dodgerblue4",
        # France (full country name) with a steelblue border
        "France+p0.5p,steelblue",
        # Norway, Sweden and Finland (multiple countries) with pink
        # land and pink3 borders
        "Norway,Sweden,Finland+gpink+p0.2p,pink3",
    ],
)

fig.show()

Entire continents can also be highlighted by adding "=" in front of the continent code to differentiate it from a country code.

fig = pygmt.Figure()

fig.coast(
    region="d",
    projection="H10c",
    land="gray",
    water="white",
    frame="afg",
    dcw=[
        # Europe
        "=EU+gseagreen",
        # Africa
        "=AF+gred3",
        # North America
        "=NA+gmagenta4",
        # South America
        "=SA+gorange",
        # Asia
        "=AS+gdodgerblue4",
        # Oceania
        "=OC+gtomato",
        # Antarctica
        "=AN+ggray30",
    ],
)

fig.show()

If available, states/territories of a country can be highlighted, too.

fig = pygmt.Figure()

fig.coast(
    region=[-130, -70, 24, 52],
    projection="L-100/35/33/45/12c",
    land="gray",
    shorelines="1/0.5p,gray30",
    borders=["1/0.8p,gray30", "2/0.2p,gray30"],
    frame=True,
    dcw=[
        # Texas with orange fill
        "US.TX+gorange",
        # Kentucky with blue outline
        "US.KY+p1p,blue",
    ],
)

fig.show()