9 replies to this topic

[Hans van der Maarel]

What do you reckon, is this bad form (city lables through the country labels) or is it okay?

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Personally, I like the look of it, but I wonder whether it might be confusing.

[loximuthal]

Looks alright to me. I don't see it being confusing at all, with the significant size distinction. One thing that does confuse me though, is the period after "DEM" and not after "REP". I think I'd lean to no periods for those, but could be persuaded otherwise.

[David Medeiros]

I think I would like it better if the type style varied by color as well as size. A thicker font set to a dark grey for example. I might also opt for tighter spacing on individual words to keep conflicts out of the words themselves as much as possible but space the words to allow conflicting labels between them.

Imhof seems to favor avoiding type conflict when ever possible but shows some options for dealing with unavoidable label conflicts. It mostly has to do with differentiation based on the alignment of the conflicting labels. In your case al are horizontal so that's not really an option.

http://www.sonic.net...mes_on_Maps.pdf

[jrat]

I second the vote for tighter spacing on individual words. The letters seem to float out on their own too much. I don't mind the other labels in between the words.

[Strebe]

As a concept, I don’t mind interspersed labels, but I do not care for this example. The city labels ought at least to be presented in a lighter tint or in another color.

Regards,
— daan Strebe

[Hans van der Maarel]

How's this?
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[Dennis McClendon]

Well, my inclination would be to use the periods indicating the abbreviations, and to put the country name in the same color (red?) as the country border. To my mind, that puts them in the same visual plane.

[rudy]

Well, my inclination would be to use the periods indicating the abbreviations, and to put the country name in the same color (red?) as the country border. To my mind, that puts them in the same visual plane.

IMHO . . .
Periods - yes (maybe tighten up the spacing after the letters a bit so the periods don't look so forlorn and lonely)
Red text - no (I think the country text will begin to appear too dominant as result).

[P.Raposo]

Hi Hans, all,
Newer version fixes the issue that bothered me most in the original: the lone period that fell on a river and was thus hard to see. I like this, but it seems now conspicuous that there are no towns in this giant swath of the country reserved for its name.

[M.Denil]

At COGS, they drill Newman Bumstead's Rules into one's head.

The Bumstead rules state:
The space between the letters must be visibly smaller than the space between the words
The space between the words must be visibly smaller than the space between the lines
The space between the lines must be visibly smaller than the space between any part of the text and any other graphic element.

It is possible to modify the rules in practice, but it must be done carefully and not with impunity.
Your lines are closer than your words: Bumstead Violation!

.. and yes, lose the abbriviation periods