MapText Enhances its Automatic Text Placement Software for Contour Maps

Plainsboro, New Jersey - June 7, 2005

MapText, Inc. has added new advanced user controls to its unique Label-Contour software, the Company announced today. Label-Contour is an extension to MapText’s flagship product Label-EZ and is compatible with all major GIS systems.  It places the elevation (or depth) labels for a contour map according to precise cartographic requirements. Placement is completely automatic and performed in a matter of seconds.

The previous version of the software grouped and labeled all contour lines along an invisible profile intersecting those contours. However, customers sometimes desire to have precise control over the number of contours to be labeled as well as how and where the labels should be placed.

The latest version of Label-Contour addresses these issues. Now users can define the maximum number of labels in a group of contours and the minimum distance between two labeled contours to avoid “high-density” areas. Users can also specify whether or not a peak, nadir, and the surrounding contours should be labeled. To achieve aesthetic appearance and evenly distributed contour labels across the entire map, maps can now be tiled and the maximum number of labels per tile can be specified by the user. The user can also specify whether labels along long contour lines should be repeated for easy comprehension of the terrain.

The enhanced and intuitive graphical user interface facilitates understanding of the labeling parameters and provides cartographers with precise control over how contour labels are placed across the map.