How To: Mask Annotation in ArcPlot

Procedure

How can annotation be masked in ARCPLOT?

Answer:

Masking is only possible for Intellifonts and True Type fonts, not for IGL fonts. Of the textsets provided with ARC/INFO, only FONT.TXT and TEMPLATE.TXT use Intellifonts. Intellifonts are usually numbered 90000 and above. For a discussion of Intellifonts and IGL fonts, please refer to Map Display and Query > Specifying marker fonts and patterns. This section discusses Intellifont and IGL patterns.

Annotation is drawn using the symbols from the textset that was loaded in ARCPLOT, not the current symbol. The value of $SYMBOL, a pseudo item having a value assigned in ARCEDIT, determines what symbols are used. When masking is specified, it is initially applied to the current symbol, that is symbol 1000. For masking to be applied to annotation it is necessary to save the current symbol to the appropriate symbol with the TEXTPUT command.

If you do not know what symbol(s) your annotation is using, the following commands will allow you to see the values stored in $SYMBOL:

Code:
ARCEDIT
EC < anno_cover >
EF ANNO.SUBCLASS
SEL ALL
LIST $SYMBOL

To apply masking to the appropriate symbol, do the following:

Code:
ARCPLOT
DISPLAY 9999
MAPE anno_cover
TEXTSET FONT.TXT
TEXTSYM $SYMBOL_from_ARCEDIT    /* Load original text symbol
TEXTMASK parameters             /* Apply masking to current symbol
TEXTPUT $SYMBOL_from_ARCEDIT    /* Save masked symbol to original location
ANNOTEXT anno_cover

If your annotation uses several text symbols, masking has to be applied by loading and saving each appropriate symbol.

Notes:

You must specify the OPAQUE option if you are plotting masked text with one of these translators: COLORHCBS, HPGL2, RTL, VCGL or VCGL2. At version 7.0.3, only POLYGON and RECTANGLE masking options are supported for hardcopy output.

For more detailed information on masking, refer to the TEXTMASK command reference. For information on the $SYMBOL pseudo item, refer to Editing coverages and INFO files with ARCEDIT > Annotation > Annotation characteristics > Text symbol.

Article ID:000001331

Software:

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Mask annotation in ArcPlot

Procedure

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