[Qgis-developer] Label polygons only outside of polygons

[Andreas Neumann]

Hi,

I see that there are some recent new features regarding labelling:

https://github.com/qgis/QGIS/commit/388e4047a75d155be0e677866f80d7423937ea30
and
https://github.com/qgis/QGIS/commit/3a44e294de08ee03c0386179693c61a3f76e5efe

I have a question regarding Nyalls recent labelling improvements (the 
new options to act as obstacle layers).
For a polygon layer, would it be possible to force the labels to always 
label outside of the feature? As an example I have a waste-water layer 
with small polygons representing special-form manholes (irregularly 
shaped). These polygons are usually too small to properly display the 
label inside the polygon and I would prefer to automatically place the 
label fully outside of the polygon.

So, can I have a layer act both, as a label layer and as an obstacle 
layer? Or have another option, something like "Force label to be outside 
of the polygon", to label always outside of the polygon of the feature?

Here are two screenshots:

This is how QGIS currently labels these polygons:
http://www.carto.net/neumann/temp/qgis_label_over_polygon.pdf

And this is how I would label them manually, outside of the polygon, but 
hope that a future QGIS version can do this automatically:
http://www.carto.net/neumann/temp/manual_label_outside_polygon.pdf

Thanks,
Andreas