Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Labels can be tricky to use. Some earlier examples in this topic show nice
short names such as Chad or Zoe, whereas real-world names are much
longer. Even the generic names applied to the e-mail data result in rather
long labels, as shown in
Figure 5-12
. Label legibility is an immediate
problem—some labels are difficult to read because of overlap, and some are
difficult to read against dark node colors.
Figure 5-12:
Labels applied to the family e-mail example include such
problems as labels overlapping and labels that are difficult to read against
dark colors.
Reducing Label Width
In node and link diagrams, nodes tend to be fairly “squarish” in proportion
(such as circles, stars, and so on). Layouts tend to position the nodes based
ondistance withoutanyspecial regard tohorizontal versusvertical distance.
Labels, however, tend to be wide, resulting in problems with long labels
reaching across multiple nodes and interfering with other labels. A few
remedies exist for managing label width:
•
Condensed fonts/narrow fonts
—A wide variety of specially
designed narrow fonts are available, and this is the perfect time to use
them because they are 25 percent to 50 percent narrower than standard
fonts. Though most Windows users will be familiar with Arial Narrow,
other choices may already be available on your system (as shown in
Figure 5-13
), including fonts such as Myriad Pro Condensed, Gill Sans
Condensed, or even Gill Sans Extra Condensed (which is an extremely
narrow font).
If you have limited choices for narrow fonts, a few nice open source
condensed fonts are available (in other words, no fee for commercial
