topic Re: Looking for a way to get white text with a black outline like you see in Google Maps. in AutoCAD Forum

Looking for a way to get white text with a black outline like you see in Google Maps.

dslocum — Wed, 12 Jun 2024 21:42:30 GMT

Is there a way to get white text with a black outline like you see in Google Maps? I need to make labels over an aerial photo and this would be the best way to do it.

Re: Looking for a way to get white text with a black outline like you see in Google Maps.

Michiel.Valcke — Wed, 12 Jun 2024 22:20:24 GMT

If you are using AutoCAD MAP 3D with GIS data you can make labels like that. (technically you can do it with non-gis data as well)

In regular AutoCAD you have to cheat by putting two texts with a sleightly different height, but the same content on top of each other and make one a light color and the other a dark color.

You maybe can do this in a block and make the second text a field looking at the content of the first text (attribute). I haven't tested this yet, but it might be work and be enough for your purposes.

Re: Looking for a way to get white text with a black outline like you see in Google Maps.

edwin.prakoso — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 03:01:53 GMT

You can also consider using an outline font. You can find and download them on Google Fonts or other resources like this one: https://www.1001freefonts.com/arialic-hollow.font

Re: Looking for a way to get white text with a black outline like you see in Google Maps.

Kent1Cooper — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 12:14:26 GMT

There are certainly outline fonts available, like Swiss721 BdOul BT [which I think comes with AutoCAD?], but without infill, so things show through the insides of the characters:

I tried overlaying that on the same in regular Swiss721 BT in Bold for infill to mask over stuff passing underneath, but while the masking part works, their character spacings don't agree:

Whether you can find a font that's usable in AutoCAD with white infill as part of the character definitions, I don't know.

Re: Looking for a way to get white text with a black outline like you see in Google Maps.

Kent1Cooper — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 12:40:08 GMT

@Michiel.Valcke wrote:

.... In regular AutoCAD you have to cheat by putting two texts with a sleightly different height, but the same content on top of each other and make one a light color and the other a dark color....

Or, a slightly different position. This is a pain to do, but it's made of five copies, the light one on top, and one dark one shifted slightly in each of the 45° directions behind it to outline all edges:

It may be effective enough at small size, but closer in, it does slightly funny things with angles and curves:

Re: Looking for a way to get white text with a black outline like you see in Google Maps.

pendean — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 12:46:31 GMT

FYI @Michiel.Valcke AutoCADMAP3D (where the tool you need resides only) is free for any active AutoCAD subscriber to install and use all day long, go grab it from your subscription page here https://manage.autodesk.com/products

Re: Looking for a way to get white text with a black outline like you see in Google Maps.

Washingtonn — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 14:58:43 GMT

Using AutoCAD:

Enter the Text (or MText).

Make a copy of the text and offset a fixed distance away (Remember the distance!) - maintain identical justification, font size, etc...

Select original and set font to Swiss721 BlkOul BT and set to desired outline color

Select copy and set font to Swiss721 Blk BT and set to desired fill color

Send color text using Draw Order behind outline text ("Send to Back")

To overlay, make insert points identical for both copy and original.

Re: Looking for a way to get white text with a black outline like you see in Google Maps.

Kent1Cooper — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 16:08:12 GMT

That works great because Blk [Black] and BlkOul [Black Outline] seem to have [within the sampling] the same character shapes and spacings. What I tried in Message 4 was with BdOul [Bold Outline], but unfortunately there's no just-plain Bd [Bold] as its own font to match up well the way the Black ones do. I had to use the regular one with the Bold option picked. That's why the character spacing doesn't match. The Black is bolder than bold, so it seems heavier than what they appear to be looking for, but if that's the only weight [among the Swiss family] that can have the characters perfectly aligned....

Re: Looking for a way to get white text with a black outline like you see in Google Maps.

dslocum — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 16:21:55 GMT

This is the final result I'm looking for. The Swiss font works the same, but the outline is much thinner than the main text, and the main text is too bold. This example was accomplished with a font that is affected by line weight, not a true-type font. I guess I will use this method unless someone suggests a true-type font that resembles this when overlayed.

Re: Looking for a way to get white text with a black outline like you see in Google Maps.

3wood — Tue, 11 Feb 2025 05:39:02 GMT

Lineweight is great idea. We can GROUP them together, insert a field in the background Mtext and links to the text content of the front one.