Boundary labeling: Models and efficient algorithms for rectangular maps

We introduce boundary labeling, a new model for labeling point sites with large labels. According to the boundary-labeling model, labels are placed around an axis-parallel rectangle that contains the point sites, each label is connected to its corresponding site through a polygonal line called leader, and no two leaders intersect. Although boundary labeling is commonly used, e.g., for technical drawings and illustrations in medical atlases, this problem has not yet been studied in the literature. The problem is interesting in that it is a mixture of a label-placement and a graph-drawing problem.

In this paper we investigate several variants of the boundary-labeling problem. We consider labels of identical or different size, straight-line or rectilinear leaders, fixed or sliding ports for attaching leaders to sites and attaching labels to one, two or all four sides of the bounding rectangle. For any variant of the boundary labeling model, we aim at highly esthetical placements of labels and leaders. We present simple and efficient algorithms that minimize the total leader length or, in the case of rectilinear leaders, the total number of bends.