Centered label halos in ArcMap 10.1

Question

When I use label features with halos in ArcMap, whether using the standard or Maplex labeling engine, the halos in the exported map (PDF) are always shifted vertically, so that instead of the halo being evenly spaced around the text it is flush with the bottom and excessive on the top.

I know others have had this issue: Export Map to PDF Halo Labels shifts Halo to latter width at the end of Label Problem, but the proposed fix doesn't work, because the option to change vertical text alignment is grayed out. Has anyone else found a way to add halos to maps?

Answer 1

As determined through Comments, this seems to have been the result of you using Gill Sans font.

To see that this is not an every font problem I ran a test using Arial, and the halos I added looked good both on the map and in the exported PDF file.

Answer 2

I've found this to be a dpi issue, not a font issue. Even using Arial font, the halos are shifted when exported at 300 dpi or less. I bumped the resolution up to 600 dpi using Franklin Gothic Medium Cond font, and the halos print perfectly. This is unfortunate since it greatly increases processing time and triples the file size (in my case), which is especially bad if you're batch exporting.