Labeling

Overview

Labeling features is supported across many classes in the API. However, there are different properties and resources available depending on the layer type, rendering mechanism, and if you are working in 2D or 3D.

SceneView

Labeling is supported for CSVLayers, FeatureLayers, SceneLayer, StreamLayer, and Sublayer, in 3D SceneViews. The labelingInfo property is specified as an array of LabelClass objects, which contains the labelExpressionInfo, labelPlacement, and TextSymbol3DLayer. The TextSymbol3DLayer class supports altering the material, font, halo, and other properties of the label graphic.

Sample: Flat vs. volumetric 3D symbol layers

Fonts for SceneView

The supported font families for 3D SceneViews are dependent upon the fonts installed on the user's computer and web browser. If an app uses a font that is not installed, the Font class implements a fallback mechanism that will use the default font family value, which is sans-serif.

See these references for instructions on how to install a new font on Windows or Mac.

MapView

FeatureLayer and CSVLayer

As of version 4.8, labeling is supported for FeatureLayers, and CSVLayers in 2D MapViews, when the layers are created from either feature services hosted on ArcGIS Online, or from non-hosted enterprise services from version 10.6.1 or later of ArcGIS Server.

The labelingInfo property is specified as an array of LabelClass objects, which contains the labelExpressionInfo, labelPlacement, and TextSymbol. The TextSymbol class supports altering the color, font, halo, and other properties of the label graphic.

Sample: Multi-line labels

Fonts for FeatureLayer and CSVLayer

Support for Font.family, Font.style, and Font.weight properties are based on hosted fonts files in .pbf format. By default, the fonts available are mostly the same ones used by the Esri Vector Basemaps These fonts are listed on page 29 in the Esri Vector Basemap Reference Document. These fonts are available via https://static.arcgis.com/fonts. The URL can be configured to point to your own font resources by setting the esriConfig.fontsUrl property.

If a Font is not available, it will use the default font family, which is sans-serif. This uses the arial-unicode-ms font file.

Fonts with bold, italic, or both, require these properties to be set in the Font.style and Font.weight properties, as opposed to being set in the Font.family. To see which fonts support what types of characters (e.g. Latin, Cyrillic, CJKV), you can search for the font name in the Microsoft Typography or Google Fonts.

List of currently supported fonts:

MapImageLayer

Labeling is supported for MapImageLayer by setting the labelingInfo property on the Sublayer class. The labelingInfo property is specified as an array of LabelClass objects, which contains the labelExperssion, labelPlacement, and TextSymbol. The TextSymbol class supports altering the color, font, halo, and other properties of the label graphic. Labeling is supported for Points, Polylines, and Polygons.

Sample: MapImageLayer - label sublayer features

Fonts for MapImageLayer

The supported font families for MapImageLayers in a MapView are dependent upon the fonts installed on the ArcGIS Server that published the layer. To check what fonts are available on ArcGIS Server, run the Available Fonts task under Home > services > System > PublishingTools (GPServer) (requires admin access). To add a new font, the font must be installed on your computer and accessible to ArcGIS Server by registering it using ArcGIS Desktop. If an app uses a font that is not installed, the Font class implements a fallback mechanism that will use the default font family value, which is sans-serif.