Labeling streets in interactive maps using embedded labels

Abstract

We consider the problem of labeling linear objects (such as streets) in interactive maps where the user can pan, zoom, and rotate continuously. Our labels contain text (such as street names). They are embedded into the objects they label, i.e., they follow the curvature of the objects, they do not move with respect to the map background, but they scale in order to maintain constant size on the screen. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that deals with curved labels in interactive maps. Our objective is to label as many streets as possible and to select label positions of high quality while forbidding la-bels to overlap at street crossings. We present a simple but effective algorithm that takes curvature and crossings into account and produces aesthetical labelings. On average over all interaction types, our implementation reaches interactive frame rates of more than 85 frames per second. © Copyright 2014 ACM.