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Re: Labelling contours on contour plots

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Szabolcs Horvát

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Apr 14, 2008, 6:54:50 AM4/14/08
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I would like to create a contour plot with traditional, "map-style"
labels. Here are some examples of such plots:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fa/Cntr-map-1.jpg
http://www.mathworks.com/products/demos/shipping/map/mapexmap_15.png
http://www.mathworks.com/access/helpdesk/help/techdoc/ref/contour1.gif

I attached what I have so far, but the approach I used has several problems:

1. It doesn't work well if ContourShading is turned on. (One problem is
the background of the text, another problem is that Normal[], which is
used to expand GraphicsComplex objects so that p1 and p2 will be real
coordinate-pairs, makes the shading ugly.)

2. I do not know how to position the labels in a way so that they will
be close enough to each other to be readable, but still not overlap.
Note how on the gr1 example some labels are drawn at one end of the
contour lines, some at the other end.

3. It would be nice to be able to drop labels from regions of high
gradients (to avoid overlapping/crowding).


How could the labels be created in a better way, to avoid these problems?


(* example graphics *)

gr1 = Normal@
ContourPlot[Sin[x] Sin[y], {x, 0, 5}, {y, 0, 5}, PlotPoints -> 30,
ContourShading -> None]

gr2 = Normal@
ContourPlot[
Evaluate[Sum[Sin[RandomReal[5, 2].{x, y}], {5}]],
{x, 0, 3}, {y, 0, 3}, ContourShading -> None, Contours -> 10]

(* create labels *)

(* This function collects the labels from the Tooltip objects, and
positions them between the 21st and 22nd points of the contour line. *)

makeLabels[gr_] :=
gr /.
Tooltip[line : Line[{Longest@Repeated[_, 20], p1_, p2_, ___}],
label_] :> {line, {Opacity[1],
Rotate[Text[label, (p1 + p2)/2, Background -> White],
Mod[ArcTan @@ (p2 - p1) + Pi/2, Pi] - Pi/2]}}

makeLabels[gr1]
makeLabels[gr2]

David Park

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Apr 15, 2008, 5:53:41 AM4/15/08
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The Presentations package gives some extra control for labeling contour
lines, or any line in a graphic that is described by a constant function.
Here is an example from your second function. I think it is better in these
cases to use a specific set of regular contour values. The operative routine
is:

DrawLineLabels[
constant Function on line,
positioning Function for labels,
error allowed in matching contour values,
list of values to be labeled].

The list of contours to be labeled does not have to be the full set of
contours used in the contour plot. The positioning function might be 0.5& to
label lines half way along their length, or RandomReal[{.3,.5}]& to label
them randomly somewhere in the middle section. You don't have to use Normal
on the contour graphics. If you wanted to double label the contours you
could use two DrawLineLabels routines.

The desirable contourlist used in this example would depend on the specific
case generated by your function.

Needs["Presentations`Master`"]

f[x_, y_] = Evaluate[Sum[Sin[RandomReal[5, 2].{x, y}], {5}]]
Sin[3.17456 x + 0.214736 y] + Sin[3.49989 x + 0.518615 y] +
Sin[1.91662 x + 2.45835 y] + Sin[1.53246 x + 4.12794 y] +
Sin[2.95345 x + 4.58416 y]

Module[
{g, contourlist},
contourlist = Range[-4, 4, .25];
g = ContourDraw[f[x, y], {x, 0, 3}, {y, 0, 3},
Contours -> contourlist,
ContourShading -> Automatic,
ColorFunction -> ColorData["Pastel"],
PlotRange -> {-5, 5}];
Draw2D[
{g,
g // DrawLineLabels[f[#1, #2] &, .5 &, 0.01, Range[-4, 4, 1],
DrawLLTextOptions -> {Background -> None,
BaseStyle -> {FontSize -> 10, FontFamily -> "Helvetica"}}]},
Frame -> True,
ImageSize -> 450]
]

Only every 4th contour line is labeled.

--
David Park
djm...@comcast.net
http://home.comcast.net/~djmpark/


"Szabolcs Horv=E1t" <szho...@gmail.com> wrote in message
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