Text Symbols in Map Viewer

[MappingMoose]

Hi All,

Just wondering if anyone has some pointers for creating symbols with text in the middle of a square for use in Map Viewer and Field Maps.

I have created a .stylx file in ArcGIS Pro and uploaded it to ArcGIS Online, but I've found the symbols with text as the top layer appear strangely in the map. Even though the symbols look fine in ArcGIS Pro and the legend in Map Viewer, in the map itself the text is off-centre on the square.

For context I made these symbols by saving coloured squares and text as individual .svg files in MS PowerPoint, then stacked them into a symbol in ArcGIS Pro before publishing the .stylx file. I did find that the text .svg files didn't automatically centre in Pro, so I had to adjust the offset x and y which might be part of the issue I'm having.

Any ideas as to what's going on? Incompatible font maybe?

[RussRoberts · Accepted solution]

If you can share the stylex file I can take a look. thanks! 

[ChristopherCounsell · Accepted solution]

SVG files can have a bit more going on than what you see. It's likely that the way the svg text elements were created has some remnant parts that ArcGIS Pro can handle, but not ArcGIS Online.

If you open the different svg components of the symbology in a text editor, what do you see?

If you see elements like text, anchors, alignment or pixel sizes, it's likely that's the cause of the issue.

Try converting the text svg to true vector paths before loading it into ArcGIS Pro, so it's treated as a graphic element more than a font.

[MappingMoose]

I wanted to post an update in case anyone comes across this post in the future.

Russ advised that there can be issues with font compatibility when symbols are created with a font that's not in the ArcGIS Online font catalogue. This was part of the issue I was seeing, as the text was being changed to a wider default font, causing misalignment.

As Christopher suggested, the files needed to be converted to true vector paths to behave like all the other SVG images. I was typing my text into a textbox and then saving it as an SVG, but when it was loaded into ArcGIS Pro it was still being recognised as text.

To convert to true vector paths I needed to use a separate drawing and illustration software. After that, I could load the text into ArcGIS Pro like all other images.