Version
1.1.0.11 (preview)
Language
English
You are reading the Icon Map Pro documentation for version 1.1.0.11, which has not been released yet. Go to the latest version (1.1.0.10).

Map labels on top of your data

A basemap draws its place names under your data, so a filled shape, a heatmap or an imagery layer covers them. The Map Labels reference layer draws place names again above your data, so readers can still see where they are.

Two maps of the same filled regions side by side: on the left the town names are hidden under the fill, on the right Map Labels draws them on top
Without Map Labels (left) and with Map Labels (right)

Add map labels

  1. In the Format pane, open the Layer Manager card and switch on Open Layer Manager.
  2. Select Add a layer, then Reference layer, then Map labels.
  3. Choose the Source, select Add to map, then Apply changes.

You can also add the layer in the Format pane: open Reference Layers > Layer Selection and switch on Map Labels. The Labels - Configuration group appears below.

Pair Map Labels with a basemap style that has no labels of its own, so that each name is drawn once. See Icon Map basemap styles.

Choose the look

Labels Source chooses where the labels come from:

  • Icon Map uses the labels of the Icon Map basemap styles. Pick the style to match your basemap in Label Style.
  • Azure Maps uses the labels of Azure Maps. It needs an Azure Maps key under API Keys & Authentication.

Your own colors

With Labels Source set to Icon Map, set Label Style to Custom to choose the colors yourself. You get a color for each kind of place name, from neighborhoods up to countries, and control over the halo that separates the text from the map.

Map labels in the Custom style with white text and a dark halo over a dark choropleth
The Custom label style with your own text and halo colors

Language

Language sets the language of the place names. It is available for label styles that support more than one language, and for Custom. It starts on Report language: the place names follow the language of the report when it is German, Spanish, French or Portuguese, and are in English otherwise. Choose a language, English included, to use it whatever the report's language. Language takes conditional formatting (fx): return a two-letter language code such as en or fr from a measure. A blank value follows the report's language.

Settings

Format pane > Reference Layers > Labels - Configuration

Setting What it does Default
Labels Source Icon Map or Azure Maps Icon Map
Label Style One of the Icon Map basemap styles, or Custom. The list holds every background style, not only the styles with labels. Shown for Icon Map The standard style
Language The language of the place names. Report language follows the report. Takes conditional formatting (fx). Shown for Icon Map Report language
Neighborhood Color Color of neighborhood names. Shown for Custom #000000
Locality Color Color of town and city names. Shown for Custom #000000
Region Color Color of region names. Shown for Custom #000000
Country Color Color of country names. Shown for Custom #000000
Halo Color Color of the halo around the text. Shown for Custom #FFFFFF
Halo Width Width of the halo, 0 to 10. Shown for Custom 2
Halo Blur Width How far the halo fades out, 0 to 10. Shown for Custom 1
Min Zoom The labels are hidden when the map is zoomed out past this level 0
Max Zoom The labels are hidden when the map is zoomed in past this level 24
Z Index Drawing order, 0 to 1000. Higher is nearer the viewer 440

Languages

Arabic (ar), Bulgarian (bg), Chinese (Simplified) (zh-Hans), Chinese (Traditional) (zh-Hant), Croatian (hr), Czech (cs), Danish (da), Dutch (nl), English (en), Estonian (et), Finnish (fi), French (fr), German (de), Greek (el), Hebrew (he), Hindi (hi), Hungarian (hu), Indonesian (id), Irish (ga), Italian (it), Japanese (ja), Korean (ko), Latvian (lv), Lithuanian (lt), Maltese (mt), Marathi (mr), Nepali (ne), Norwegian (no), Persian (fa), Polish (pl), Portuguese (pt), Romanian (ro), Russian (ru), Slovak (sk), Slovenian (sl), Spanish (es), Swedish (sv), Turkish (tr), Ukrainian (uk), Urdu (ur), Vietnamese (vi).

Tips and limits

  • The default Z Index of 440 puts map labels above circles, lines, shapes and file layers, and below data labels. Lower it to tuck the labels under a layer.
  • Use Min Zoom and Max Zoom to show the extra labels only at the zoom levels where your data hides the basemap's own.
  • ArcGIS and Mapbox label sources are part of the Legacy engine. See the documentation for 1.1.0.9 and earlier.
  • To label the features of your own files, see Labels on reference layers. To label the rows of your data, see Data labels.