In QGIS, how do you place horizontal label outside polygon border?

Question

I am attempting to recreate a layout from ArcGIS in QGIS. One of the advanced label options in ArcGIS is to force horizontal labels outside a polygon. You can optionally choose which quadrant the labels fall in.

This question is related, but the labels are parallel with the polygon perimeter: Labels outside polygons in ArcMap

The answer to this question is basically what I'm looking for, but my polygons aren't circles: Upright/Horizontal labels when labeling polygons at perimeter in QGIS That question was asked in 2014, so perhaps a solution has been found in ensuing years? I am fine with prioritizing a quadrant for location, if that would help.

Answer 1

Facing a similar issue, I applied in Placemente/Data Defined the following expressions:

For X coordinate:

x( closest_point( $geometry, make_point(  x_max($geometry),(  y_min( $geometry )))))+20

For Y coordinate:

y( closest_point( $geometry, make_point(  x_max($geometry),(  y_min( $geometry )))))-15

In this case, the label is at the bottom right of the polygon. The constants (+20 and -15) can be adapted depending on the scale, but it works for all features automatically

Answer 2

I'm using QGIS 2.18.4

You can create a virtual layer importing your polygons by a buffer distance (and keeping your label field):

And then label like this:

You will end up with this (I'm adding the buffer outline so you can see it but you can set it to transparent):

Answer 3

Unfortunately, there is no automatic way to place the labels outside the polygons and keep them horizontally. After several tests, I found two ways to do that, but both of them are time consuming:

1. Using Rule based Labeling

   • You to define each label individually, and use Placement -> Data Defined -> Coordinate X and enter the following formula:

     x(bounds($geometry))+ Constant
     

     Placement -> Data Defined -> Coordinate y and enter the following formula:

     y(bounds($geometry))+ Constant
     

     Where constant is an offset value to shift the label outside the polygon, thus, you need to adjust the constant for each individual label.

   • I used Alignment horizontal and vertical and wrote 'Center'and 'Cap', respectively.

Here is the result:

2. The second option is to add x and y fields in the attribute table, then go to Placement -> Data Defined -> Coordinate X and Coordinate y, and select x field and y field, respectively. Then start editing and move the labels manually outside each polygon.

As I said at the top of my answers, both solutions are not efficient. But I hope the developer team can add this option in the next releases.

Answer 4

If I understand correctly, you can do like this:

Keep in mind that using curved labels will not show up too long laybels.

Answer 5

This is an answer to an old question, but placement of labels outside polygons will become a standard option in QGIS 3.14 per PR #36106