anchor point for line labels is a hint or a strict requirement
Strict: Labels are placed exactly on the label anchor only, and no
other fallback placements are permitted.
Hint: The label anchor is treated as a hint for the preferred label
placement, but other placements close to the anchor point are permitted.
polygons
Options are:
- 'yes': allow placing outside the polygon if needed
- 'no': don't allow outside placements
- 'force': only ever put this label outside the polygon
outside of polygon features when required
When a label can't be placed inside the polygon and this option is checked,
then it will be automatically placed at a nicely selected location
just outside of the polygon
Sponsored by QGIS Swiss user group!
settings and logic
The previous approach of a single fixed value which applied to ALL line and ALL polygon
features was... not ideal. It meant that all line features would be assigned the same
number of candidates, regardless of length. So a road of length 1 cm on the rendered
map would have an identical number of candidates as a 30cm road covering the length of the
whole map!! This resulted in both a lot of wasted calculations (generating a ridiculous
number of candidates for small lines at barely discernable distances from each other)
AND an insufficient number of candidates for lengthy features (resulting in worse label
placement for these features).
(The situation was similar, but even worse for polygons)
Now, the setting is reworked to "Number of line candidates per cm" and "number of
polygon candidates per cm2". This means that small features get much less candidates,
and large features get much more features! Both a win for map rendering speed in many
circumstances AND good cartography... now that's a nice Christmas gift for QGIS :)
of labels, min size for labels) to a new class QgsLabelThinningSettings
This new class is designed to contain settings related to how the label
engine removes candidate label positions and reduces the number of
displayed labels.
So that these files are all grouped together, making it easier to locate
all the components of the labeling engine and hopefully making things
easier to navigate
