Basemap Without Labels

[chuckfrank]

Is it possible to turn off the labels of an ESRI basemap?  The labels of one of the feature layers on my map are colliding with the basemap labels.

Thanks

[TracySchloss]

The ESRI basemaps are tiled, and since the labels are part of the generation of the tile, I'd say the answer is 'no'.

Only the satellite base map has hybrid, which is imagery and labels, compared to 'satellite' which is just the imagery.  The rest all have some labeling. 

Some base maps are more plain than others.  I suggest you try out several and see if you find one that has less conflict with your labels.  Otherwise you're going to have to be very creative with the font size etc of your labels in order to get them to stand out.   I use the gray canvas a lot when I need my labels to pop.

[KenBuja]

Several of the basemaps (hybrid, oceans, gray, dark-gray, and terrain) have a separate "reference" layer, which contains the labels. In the case of the terrain basemap, the reference layer also contains lines and polygons. You can see these layers via this post about a bug in the Basemap Gallery dijit. Change the basemap in the code and then select another basemap with the dijit.

As for how to delete that layer, I wasn't able to successfully remove just the reference layer in my attempts. Hopefully Bjorn Svensson​ or Kelly Hutchins​ will have a solution.

[chuckfrank]

Thanks for the reply.  If I'm unable to display the basemap without labels I'll probably create my own custom basemap service.