Posts Tagged ‘font’
Controlling the placement and properties of text labels, Part 1
Problem: ArcMap’s dynamic labels don’t look good enough on your map
Labeling is one of the most time-consuming aspects GIS work, but it can also be one of the most fun, especially if you have an artistic eye for details. Knowing a few basic tricks can reduce the pain of the process and achieve a more attractive and readable end result. I will take you through the process of producing labels for a map of the everglades in Florida.
ArcMap does a respectable job of dynamically placing labels to use as a starting point. Here is how my map looks with dynamic labels turned on with all the default settings.
It is going to need work. I recommend breaking things down into steps. First, you’ll want to tweak the dynamic label settings to get them as close as possible to how they should look in the final product. As a last step you’ll convert them to annotation in order to make final nit-picky changes to get them just right. Keeping them dynamic until the very end will save you time in the long run.
But before you do all that, you will want to set your reference scale. This is the scale at which you will display or print your map. Setting one will make life incredibly easier because symbols and labels will be optimally sized to this scale, and, most importantly, labels will stay in the same place when you zoom in and out. There is nothing more frustrating than zooming in to precisely adjust pieces of densely packed annotation only to have them all shift position when you zoom back out. Reference scale saves you from this.
To figure out what your reference scale should be, switch to layout view and change the page size and orientation to those you plant to use in your final product. Place your data frame where it should be within your map template and zoom to the extent you want to display. Now look up and notice the scale. You’ll probably want to change it to the closest round number that produces a display window you’re happy with. For me that was 1:2,000,000. Go to your data frame properties and set your reference scale to that number.
Now, start adjusting your dynamic label placement settings with the easiest (i.e. the largest, most spread apart) features first. Here that’s the parks and water bodies (lakes and marshes). Turn labels for everything else off and then pick your fonts.
Readability tip #1:
Each feature layer should have its own font, so the map reader can more easily tell which label goes with which feature.
It is common to use blue italic text with water bodies. I picked bold dark green small caps for the parks. Now, you’ll notice that The Everglades is showing up all over the place, cluttering the map. This is because ArcMap defaults to placing one label per feature part for polygons. Switching this to “remove duplicate labels” in the placement properties will help.
A lot of what you will be doing is reducing label clutter. Forcing the label to only be placed inside the polygon would help dramatically with this as well (it won’t show unless it fits). For the parks, I have reduced clutter by changing settings on the Conflict Detection tab. I increased the label buffer to 10, which forces labels to be placed further apart. I also changed the label weight to medium, which reduces the chance they will show if the labels for other features are near them.
Moving on to city points. These need to stand out on top of the busy road pattern. Adding a halo in a contrasting color will help a great deal. In order to add a halo, press the Symbol… button on the Layer Properties, Labels tab. Then press the Properties… button and go the Mask tab.
1.0 is a good size is most cases. Pressing Symbol… again will let you change the halo color. Black text with a white halo is most commonly used, but you can get creative. The key is have the halo contrast both with the background and with the text. I added a light grey halo to the parks because I wanted them to show up a little better but not stand out as much as the cities. I also increased the character spacing on the parks.
Readability tip #2:
If your labels are hard to read against the background, increasing the font size isn’t the only solution. You can also:
- Bold the font
- Use all capital letters
- Increase the spacing between the letters
- Add a halo or solid rectangle background (go to Advanced Text tab for this) in a contrasting color.
Next week: Part 2. I will cover label classes, annotation and call-outs.
Tags: dynamic label, font, scale