Android map marker color?

Question 1

This is how to make a default marker

Marker melbourne = mMap.addMarker(new MarkerOptions().position(MELBOURNE)
    .icon(BitmapDescriptorFactory
        .defaultMarker(BitmapDescriptorFactory.HUE_AZURE)));

and these are the constants you can use

float   HUE_AZURE   
float   HUE_BLUE    
float   HUE_CYAN    
float   HUE_GREEN   
float   HUE_MAGENTA 
float   HUE_ORANGE  
float   HUE_RED 
float   HUE_ROSE    
float   HUE_VIOLET  
float   HUE_YELLOW

Question 2

Here is a method I am using to generate dynamic Hue colors for markers based on given String color.

May be useful for someone :)

Marker melbourne = mMap.addMarker(new MarkerOptions().position(MELBOURNE)
.icon(getMarkerIcon("#ff2299")));

// method definition
public BitmapDescriptor getMarkerIcon(String color) {
    float[] hsv = new float[3];
    Color.colorToHSV(Color.parseColor(color), hsv);
    return BitmapDescriptorFactory.defaultMarker(hsv[0]);
}

Question 3

DETAILED ANSWER!

float hue = 120;  //(Range: 0 to 360)

Marker melbourne = mMap.addMarker(new MarkerOptions().position(MELBOURNE)
    .icon(BitmapDescriptorFactory
        .defaultMarker(hue)));

You can give any hue value ranging from 0 to 360, some constants are defined here (https://developers.google.com/android/reference/com/google/android/gms/maps/model/BitmapDescriptorFactory)

BEST WAY! to find required hue(that matches your required color).

Open this image defult_pin in Paint.Net/Photoshop editor (or other)

Goto hue options in your photo editor and slide hue bar and note best matched hue value.

For Paint.net (Adjustments -> Hue/Saturation)
For Photoshop (Photography -> Adjustments -> Hue/Saturation)

if value is above 0, use exact value , if value is below 0, take postivie (absolute) of value, add it in 180 and use the result value.

Question 4

Symbol You Want on Color You Want!

I was looking for this answer for days and here it is the right and easy way to create a custom marker:

'http://chart.googleapis.com/chart?chst=d_map_pin_letter&chld=xxx%7c5680FC%7c000000&.png' where xxx is the text and 5680fc is the hexadecimal color code and 000000 is the hexadecimal color code of the text.

Theses markers are totally dynamic and you can create whatever balloon icon you want. Just change the URL.

Question 5

Simple explanation that no one mentioned yet:

When you set marker color, you in fact set the x value of HSV(x, 100%, 100%)

Open any HEX/RGB-to-HSV converter, online version here
Convert your HEX/RGB to HSV
(H)ue is the x value you use in BitmapDescriptorFactory.defaultMarker(x)
(S)aturation will be set to 100% by Google Maps API
(V)alue will be set to 100% by Google Maps API

The above also means that you can't set any marker color you wish this way. To represent any color as HSV, (S) and (V) should also be altered but Google Maps API doesn't allow this for the default marker - it uses constant value "100%".

If you want to see how your marker will look like, open any HSV converter (online version here), set (H)ue to the x value you got above, (S)aturation and (V)alue to 100%.

NOTE: alternatively, instead of HSV(x, 100%, 100%) you may use HSL(x, 100%, 50%) which encodes exactly the same color.