[mapserver-users] label lines along path

[Stephen Lime]

The maporama site is not MapServer, too bad cause it's *very* slick.

Aligning a label to a spline or curve is not available. I've looked before for algorithms but have never found one. It's not clear whether that is better accomplished beforehand rather than on-the-fly. I definitely would be slower than the way things work now. GD and it's TTF extension are not equipted to deal with this.

Steve

Stephen Lime
Data & Applications Manager

Minnesota DNR
500 Lafayette Road
St. Paul, MN 55155
651-297-2937

>>> Alexander Pucher <pucher at atlas.gis.univie.ac.at> 11/29/01 01:58AM >>>
Hi,

after solving some problems with labeling lines using a hierachy based on importance (e.g. city streets), I have yet another question left.

Is there a way to label lines not only horizontal or by a given angle, but along a path. In a PostScript book I have, they call this method "placing text along an arbitrary path". 

Consider labeling roads or even rivers that curve a lot. This might be not so important when I think of city street systems in the US, but it is when mapping cities in Europe, like Vienna,Austria, in my case.

Stephen Woodbridge sent a link to http://maporama.com/share yesterday, where you can clearly see that the street labels sometimes follow a path.
Is this a MapServer app, and if so, how is the labeling done?

mfg
ALEX 
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Institut fuer Geographie und Regionalforschung
Universität Wien
Kartografie und Geoinformation

Departement of Geography and Regional Research
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Cartographie and GIS

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