Opinions Needed - Point Labeling

[Stephen Lime]

You've described what is currently supported 1. describes point layers and
2. describes annotation. Only remaining issue is buffered labels and their interaction
with placed markers. With annotation this is handled fine, but with points you only
want the raw label bbox tested against placed markers, not the buffered bbox.

Steve

Stephen Lime
Internet Applications Analyst

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

>>> "Brent Fraser" <bfraser at geoanalytic.com> 11/24/99 09:35AM >>>
Sounds OK.  Generally my needs are

1. Geographic point entities must  be symbolized, regardless of overlap (eg
Oil wells).  The labels that related to these points should be in the same
relative location (eg above-center), but if they overlap with other labels,
try to place them in other locations, and as a last resort don't label if
the labels overlap.  In the case of a map of oils wells, I would not want
labels from any other layer overlapping the well symbols or their labels.

and (of much less importance):

2. Symbolize points in a cartographically pleasing manner (eg populated
places markers), but it's ok to not symbolize if they overlap, and it's OK
not to label if the labels overlap.

Brent Fraser

----- Original Message -----
From: Stephen Lime <steve.lime at dnr.state.mn.us>
To: <mapserver-users at lists.gis.umn.edu>
Sent: Saturday, November 20, 1999 8:16 AM
Subject: Opinions Needed - Point Labeling


> I'm messing around with labeling layers of type
> POINT. When processed all points are rendered regardless of overlap. This
is how it was done in previous versions as well and that won't change. The
change is related to how labels are placed for these layers. The idea is
that for point layers with labels, no other text from any layer should
overlap with those labels. This is similar to how annotation layers are
handles, but the difference is with annotation the marker is drawn after any
collision avoidance has been done so markers don't overlap either. Does this
make sense?
>
> This only applies to POINT layers that are being labeled. It's not
practical to avoid collisions with all points (or other features for that
matter) as there wouldn't be any room for labels.
>
> The earthquake demo I did uses POINT and got me into trying this. Any
comments appreciated.
>
> Steve