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  • Add text to a map
  • Displaying labels
  • Placing labels with the Maplex Label Engine
  • Controlling label density
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  • What is the Maplex Label Engine?
  • A quick tour of labeling with the Maplex Label Engine
  • Getting started with the Maplex Label Engine

    • General Maplex Label Engine settings
    • Maplex Label Engine placement properties for advanced labeling
    • Specifying the text for labels when using the Maplex Label Engine
    • Using text formatting tags with the Maplex Label Engine
    • Maplex Label Engine memory usage
    • Vertical placement for Asian text

    Label positions for points

    • Labeling points
    • Selecting a point label position
    • Shifting labels from a fixed position
    • Offsetting point labels
    • Orienting point labels to graticules
    • Setting user-defined zones for point label placement
    • Setting label rotation using a numeric field

    Label positions for lines

    • Labeling lines
    • Selecting a line label position
    • Labeling using the Street Placement style
    • Labeling using the Street Address Placement style
    • Labeling using the Contour Placement style
    • Labeling using the River Placement style for line features
    • Offsetting line labels
    • Orienting line labels
    • Spreading a label along a line

    Label positions for polygons

    • Labeling polygons
    • Selecting a polygon label position
    • Labeling using the Land Parcel Placement style
    • Labeling using the River Placement style for polygon features
    • Labeling using the Boundary Placement style
    • Placing labels outside polygons when they won't fit inside
    • Offsetting labels from polygon boundaries
    • Orienting polygon labels to graticules
    • Placing labels using internal and external zones
    • Setting an anchor point position for callouts
    • Spreading the words of a label inside a polygon
    • Spreading the characters of a label inside a polygon

    Label fitting strategies

    • Why use additional strategies for placing labels?
    • Stacking labels
    • Allowing labels to overrun a feature
    • Reducing the size of the label text
    • Abbreviating and truncating words to place more labels
    • Key Numbering
    • Using strategy order

    Controlling label density

    • Why specify methods to control label density?
    • Removing duplicate labels within a given radius
    • Repeating labels along lines
    • Repeating polygon feature labels
    • Specifying a label buffer distance to change the space between labels
    • Specifying a minimum feature size for labeling
    • Connecting line segments for labeling
    • Labeling the largest feature part for polygons

    Resolving label conflicts

    • Why specify methods to resolve label conflicts?
    • Preventing labels from overlapping certain features
    • Setting labels as background labels
    • Forcing the placement of all labels in a label class

    Maplex Label Engine Tutorial

    • Introduction to the Maplex Label Engine tutorial
    • Exercise 1: Enabling the Maplex Label Engine and adding the Labeling toolbar
    • Exercise 2: Labeling the parcels with their serial and parcel numbers
    • Exercise 3: Labeling the parcel boundaries with their length
    • Exercise 4: Labeling the streets with their names

    Why specify methods to control label density?

    ArcMap 10.8
    |
    Help archive
    ArcGIS Desktop is in mature support and will be retired March 1, 2026. There are no plans for future releases of ArcGIS Desktop, and it is recommended that you migrate to ArcGIS Pro. See Migrate from ArcMap to ArcGIS Pro for more information.

    When placing labels with the Maplex Label Engine, all available space will be used to fit the text. Sometimes this results in dense placement of labels. By creating a label buffer, removing duplicate labels, specifying a minimum size of features to be labeled, connecting line segments, or specifying only to label the largest feature, you can control the density of label placement by decreasing the number of labels placed.

    • Specifying a label buffer distance to change the space between labels
    • Removing duplicate labels within a given radius
    • Specifying a minimum feature size for labeling
    • Connecting line segments for labeling
    • Labeling the largest feature part for polygons

    For small-scale maps where you may have larger features that display over the extent, you can increase the number of labels placed for features. This is useful when dealing with large meandering polygons such as in geologic maps or long highways that span the extent of a map.

    • Repeating polygon feature labels
    • Repeating labels along lines

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