6 replies to this topic

[AndyM]

I'm exporting ArcMap (v10) annotation to Illustrator (CS4), but when I open the file many of the type-on-path objects are missing their last letter. It appears the baseline is a tiny bit too short to accomodate that last letter. The problem text objects are indicated by a red plus-sign-in-a-box indicating a text overflow.

A couple of years ago I read a solution to this, maybe at CartoTalk, but haven't been able to find it. I think it involved releasing/deleting the clipping paths that ArcMap includes, and nudging all the text with an arrow key and nudging it back. This gets rid of ~ 90% of the problem items.

In Illustrator, dragging the last vertex of the baseline path slightly to the right fixes the problem. Reducing the point size of the text object by 0.1 usually fixes it too. But this has to be done one text object at a time. I've attached images of before and after nudging, and a detail image, but what I'm showing is small fraction of the annotation in our current project.

Has anyone got any better solutions than manually fixing one at a time?

 ArcMapAnno_to_Illustrator_1.jpg   93.62K   34 downloads

 ArcMapAnno_to_Illustrator_2.jpg   84.91K   31 downloads

 ArcMapAnno_to_Illustrator_3.jpg   34.17K   18 downloads

[David Medeiros]

Are you using MAPublisher by any chance? There are some new text tools in the most recent release and if I recall correctly one of them dealt with this issue.

Alternatively you could apply the point size reduction to the entire text layer. If that reduction is more than you want in your final then try over sizing the text in Arc before exporting to Illustrator for reduction.

You could also reduce the tracking in Illustrator, or both tracking and point size, all universally to avoid working one text object at a time.


Edited to add: your example shows a decent amount of initial improvement. That may be as good as it gets, this is cartography after all and a certain amount of tedium is to be expected.

[Matthew Hampton]

I would just be happy they are all on unbroken baselines and each individual letter isn't on its own path.

One suggestion to fix this problem might be using TextTweaker by John Wundes. You might be able to tweak the remaining ones by fiddling with the tracking parameter.

I'd be interested to know if you find success.

[AndyM]

Alternatively you could apply the point size reduction to the entire text layer. If that reduction is more than you want in your final then try over sizing the text in Arc before exporting to Illustrator for reduction.
You could also reduce the tracking in Illustrator, or both tracking and point size, all universally to avoid working one text object at a time.

Brilliant! Actually, I have numerous font sizes but most tracking values are 100%, so I can programatically increase tracking in ArcMap before the export.

Are you using MAPublisher by any chance? There are some new text tools in the most recent release and if I recall correctly one of them dealt with this issue.

I have MP but haven't looked at the latest revision. I guess it's time. It would be nice if I could change the point size or tracking by a proportion rather than by an absolute amount.

your example shows a decent amount of initial improvement. That may be as good as it gets, this is cartography after all and a certain amount of tedium is to be expected.

Point taken. It's not so much the tedium in itself I mind, it's the risk of screwing something up. But, after all, this is cartography.

Thanks David.

[AndyM]

I would just be happy they are all on unbroken baselines and each individual letter isn't on its own path.

Indeed! How soon we forget.

Thanks for the reference to the script, I'll check it out.

[David Medeiros]

Alternatively you could apply the point size reduction to the entire text layer. If that reduction is more than you want in your final then try over sizing the text in Arc before exporting to Illustrator for reduction.
You could also reduce the tracking in Illustrator, or both tracking and point size, all universally to avoid working one text object at a time.

Brilliant! Actually, I have numerous font sizes but most tracking values are 100%, so I can programatically increase tracking in ArcMap before the export.

Are you using MAPublisher by any chance? There are some new text tools in the most recent release and if I recall correctly one of them dealt with this issue.

I have MP but haven't looked at the latest revision. I guess it's time. It would be nice if I could change the point size or tracking by a proportion rather than by an absolute amount.

your example shows a decent amount of initial improvement. That may be as good as it gets, this is cartography after all and a certain amount of tedium is to be expected.

Point taken. It's not so much the tedium in itself I mind, it's the risk of screwing something up. But, after all, this is cartography.

Thanks David.

Just checking my MP now and although I haven't used it yet I see that under the text utility there is an "extend overflowing text" function. This is probably the tool you'll want to use if you upgrade to current version. Now if we could just get Arc to export path type on a single line we'd be in good shape!

[Hans van der Maarel]

If you have the latest MP version you can also try importing the annotations from a geodatabase.