Map

A map is an item used to view explored terrain.

Console Edition
In the Console Edition, the player spawns with a map in their inventory upon creating a new world.

Mapping
Crafting a map creates an empty map. The map will be drawn for the first time when it is held and used (with use item). This map can then be adjusted to different zoom levels. After conversion to a drawn map item, it starts to draw a top-down view of the player's surroundings, with North pointing to the top of the map, East to the right, South is down, and West is to the left. An oval pointer indicates the player's position on the map, and will move in real time as the player moves across the terrain shown on the map.

To record the world on a map, that specific map item must be held in the player's hands while the player moves around the world. The world will be recorded as-is during exploration, meaning that if the world is modified, a player must revisit the area while holding the map in order to update the map's view. Maps can also be cloned. A map's parameters are fixed when the map is first used, meaning the map does not remain centered on the player—the drawing snaps to a pre-set grid.

Other players will only be displayed on the map if they have a map in their inventory cloned from the one being looked at. When placing a map into an item frame, the map will display with a green pointer shown at the location of the item frame. This is to help the player see where they are in relation to the area that the map is showing. When the player leaves the area shown on a specific map, the player pointer will transform into a white dot on that map. Note that this indicator is not shown if the player is too far from the map's center: the radius is 320 blocks per level of zoom. The dot will move along the edge of the map to show the relative location of the player.

While maps in the Nether work, all that will be shown is a red and gray pattern. This pattern does NOT show where lava lakes or oceans are shown in relation to netherrack. The only useful function is finding where you are in relation to where you made the map (the center), or have placed framed maps (green pointers). Additionally, the player pointer rapidly spins and is not a good indicator of direction. Maps made in the End show the same red and gray pattern as the Nether. The direction indicator does work properly in the End.

A player can make a large piece of pixel art facing upwards, center a map on it, and place that map in an item frame to create a custom picture.

Maps display as a mini map when held in the off hand, or if the off-hand slot is occupied; the map is full-sized only when held in the dominant hand with both hands free.

Map content
Each pixel of a map corresponds to a variably-sized area of the world, and is always aligned to X and Z coordinates that are multiples of 8. Generally, the color of a map pixel matches the color of the most common opaque block in the corresponding area, as seen from the sky. 'Minority blocks' in the target area have no effect on the color of the pixel, thus small features tend to be undetectable on zoomed-out maps.

Maps will also show ground up to about 15 blocks below the surface of the water in oceans as slightly lighter blue, so you can see where the ground rises. This is not true with land above water. Higher elevations in the world mean lighter colors on the map. The map will record the surface even as you move below the surface.

Maps are 128×128 pixels in size, giving coverage varying from 128×128 to 2048×2048 blocks (8×8 to 128×128 chunks) depending on their zoom factor.

Some relevant distances: 128 blocks (8 chunks) is the update radius from a player in the overworld. However, it is half this (64 blocks) in the End and the Nether. Also, 1024 blocks is the minimum Overworld distance from a Nether Portal, at which you can build another portal and expect to reach a new location in the Nether. This is the distance across a 1:8 map, and also from a 1:16 map's center to its edge.

Position indicator
In the Computer and Console Editions, the pointer on the map that indicates the position and direction of the player is already built into any map.

In Pocket Edition, a map can be crafted with or without this position indicator, and a map without a position marker can add one later by adding a compass to the map.

Zoom details
The zoom functions from the time you center the map (zoom level 0) to the largest size (zoom level 4).

Maps are always aligned to a grid at all zoom levels. That means zooming out any map in a specific area covered by that map will always have the same center, regardless of where the map was originally centered. As such maps will be aligned by map width (1024 blocks for a level 3 maps) minus 64. As such a level 3 map generated at spawn will cover X and Z coordinates from -64 to 960. All maps generated in this area will zoom out to the same coordinates, guaranteeing that they are always 'aligned' on a map wall.

For the Console Edition, the map generated at spawn will cover X and Z coordinates from -512 to 512, this is done so that a classic and small sized world uses only one map, a medium sized world using exactly 9 maps (X and/or Z coordinates from ±512 to ±1536), and a large world using exactly 25 maps (X and/or Z coordinates from ±1536 to ±2560).

Cloning
The parts of the world that have already been explored and mapped will be copied, and newly explored areas will appear on both instances. In Creative Mode, cloned maps can be obtained by pick blocking on the map displayed on item frames (make sure the map is out of your inventory when using pick block, or else that map will just be moved into your active hotbar slot).

Trivia

 * Use of the key can allow the player to hold a map without blocking their view at all.
 * There can be no more than 65536 (216) unique maps per world. If there are too many maps, when trying to craft one it will relay the message "Can't craft map: too many maps".
 * The highest possible Map-ID is 32767
 * A map created using can be any map by using the data parameter to specify the map number desired. If no data value is supplied it will default to map_x", where x is the number of the map. The first one will be map_0. If Map_0 has not ever been crafted, it will be centered on the original spawn point (not moved with beds).
 * If the damage value is larger than the numbers of maps created then it will give you a 1:8 map in that area (which used to be the default map in previous updates). E.g. assuming that you have not already exceeded 100 maps it will give you a default map.
 * The maps are stored separately as their own data file as   with (x) being the map number, see map item format for more info. By manipulating this number, players can organize their maps to suit them, or if they accidentally create a map in the same location, they can delete their extra map so as to save the number they make.
 * Certain programs can be used to make customized maps with images or text on them instead of actual maps, many people use these in adventure maps to show pictures or to tell a story.
 * Since all copies of a map are links to the same file, copying an unfinished map will keep it synchronized with the copy as you fill it in. Thus, a copy stored in a chest can act as a remote backup.