(Professional) Label Positioning?

Question

Just a general question here. I've implemented labeling in my code and solved a fair amount of problems that seemed insurmountable at first. Now that the labeling is working I have directed my attention to the positioning of the labels and am extremely frustrated with the capabilities offered by the base ArcEngine. I have no experience with Maplex (or any other tool) and suspect that that extension (or a 3rd party tool) is the only way to do decent labeling in the ArcGIS product line. Is this a true picture of the general experience? If so, what solution would you, dear reader, offer? Is Maplex the best and only way? Are there acceptable 3rd party solutions? Any suggestions in this area will be most appreciated!

Answer 1

You are right, base labeling capability is far from professional.
At my work is it by far the most contentious subject (in mapping discussions)...
when to label, what to label, how to label.
everybody's a cartographer.

Maplex is a great step in the right direction but still a far cry from perfect.
(I've spent many hours in front of autocad placing labels into tight areas where labels were required)

My MO is to use KISS first. Especially whith the technology availble. Make popup information and report information to try to overcome using too much labeling.
If the map is interactive much more information can be extracted/drilled down to than any bad labeling can accomplish.

if that doesn't work then using some labeling tricks
tips and tricks pdf
esri help
maplex help

and sometimes just using a crowbar - like a.making multiple copies of a layer and labeling with one and displaying symbology with another, b.creating graphic blocks and grouping objects, c.placing ballon callouts, and d.using inset maps.
I have even used autocad map to place ALL labels for streets and then displayed that georeferenced drawing (with text only in it) in arcmap. It ansered two of the main problems of all esri labeling. ALL streets were labeled, and they all STAYED where they were placed.

Answer 2

In my experience, most cartographic companies that use ArcGIS for their maps actually export the map to an Adobe Illustrator file and do all of the labeling there -- at least the final tweaks, as they may use Maplex to get a good rough draft. But yes, the regular ArcGIS labeling engine is horrendous. Maplex is marginally better and, in fact, any automated label placement engine will produce disappointing results compared to the work of a skilled cartographer.

It all comes down to how much time you're willing to invest in quality labeling. Maplex can be a decent middle-ground approach.

Answer 3

The most 'professional' label positioning for ArcGIS is using Annotation Feature Classes. Start with auto-labeling or Maplex, but then right click the feature class and choose Convert to Annotation. From there you can modify each label to your heart's content, and you can create annotation layers that only appear at certain scale levels. You won't have to worry about labels moving around, and you can get a pretty good-looking result without having to go into Adobe Illustrator.

Answer 4

As someone who is currently doing a lot of automatic label placement coding (not related to ArcGIS), all I can say it is very, very difficult to achieve something that won't require human post-processing of labels. Just take a look at vast amount of scientific articles about auto label placement. I guess that's why companies charge $2000+ per license for products like Maplex. Whether those are worth the price, I don't know. My goal is to provide something decent for a fraction of that price (or even free).