I went through several rounds of experimentation in order to get the
right combination of legibility and visual hierarchy for each of the map
features. Starting with the water features of San Francisco Bay and Golden
Gate, I wanted to use fairly standard font/color combinations for water
features. I chose the built-in 'coastal features' symbol option that converted
the labels to blue italicized Arial font with extra spacing. I made San
Francisco Bay larger due to its larger size, and I used the Draw toolbar to
rotate the labels to align with their orientations and to fit within the map.
My label for Lake Merced, however, was created manually by changing the font
color to blue and italicizing. I increased character spacing only slightly in
order to fit within map. I also applied a white halo of 0.5 to allow the text
to stand out from the background.
The San Francisco label needed to be prominent without dominating the
layout. I maintained the Arial font, increased the size to 14, changed the
style to Bold, and applied a halo of 0.5. I placed the label in the center of
the map; this will naturally be one of the first labels a viewer is drawn to,
and it also happens to be in an area of the map without competing labels.
I treated Marin Peninsula as a landform. After experimentation, I
settled on a dark grey (70%) Arial text with increased character spacing (40)
and a light grey (20%) halo. The combination of grey text and grey halo allows
the label to stand out from the green park background without contrasting as
intensely as a black/white combination would. I used the Spline Text tool from
the Draw toolbar to create the moderately curved text that roughly follows the
curve of the peninsula.
I kept the labels for Treasure Island and Angel Island as simple Arial
text with no halo. The text stands out from the blue background without a halo
or other alteration. Also, given the placement of the islands away from other
features and labels, a placement to the upper right clearly labels each island
without the need for pointers or having the labels directly on the features. I
also kept Sausalito relatively simple, but its location required a halo as well
as placement directly on it. I experimented with rotating the text to better
fit the feature, but this never looked right to my eye.
The parks were a challenge due to their relatively small size and
location near other features and labels. I began by fitting the text within the
features for Golden Gate Park and the Presidio of San Francisco, but this was a
tight fit . This also obscured the features themselves in the process. Instead,
I moved the text away from each park and used the Draw toolbar to create a
simple line pointing from the label to the feature. This eliminates any
confusion of what the text is labelling, and the consistency of style works
well. I used the same style for the Golden Gate Bridge; the bridge feature is
far too small for a directly placed label, and it fits well with the park
style.
Keeping the general labelling style simple, I directly placed the text
for Russian Hill, Nob Hill, and the San Miguel Hills on the feature areas with
haloed Arial text. The halo was necessary to allow the labels to stand out from
the streets symbology underneath. I used the same text style for Twin Peaks,
only adding a small pointer line to more clearly indicate the feature area.