How to fix the labels on the light gray canvas basemap?

[TimothieBiggs]

Hi Esri -

I love the the light gray canvas basemap. However the neighbourhood/place labels for New York City are embarassing! The same with the labels on the imagery. Sure we can fix them for users inside our organization but how can we work with you to have them improved so everyone can benefit?

We can provide you with the data - it's a publicly available dataset - and we can give you some pointers on what should display at different scales.

Look forward to hearing from you!

Tim

[JimHerries]

Tim,

Thanks for writing.  I�??d love to see examples of maps that aren�??t working for your purposes.  Ideally, ones with and without additional labels.  You can email me jherries at esri.com with examples.

The Canvas reference layer is deliberately sparse with the labels.  It has place name labels throughout, but we generally try to leave things out rather than fill in every blank spot on the map with a label. It�??s not a basemap where we try to fit in a label if there is room.  We leave lots of room for the thematic content, which can range from local scale to neighborhoods scale to city scale to regional scale to national scale.

The idea is to be minimalist about it so that others can add their themes, and whatever additional labels they�??d prefer, to the map.

Labels on imagery are similar, in that a balance needs to be achieved between enough labels to give a sense of things, but not so many labels you can't see the imagery. 

Of course, there�??s always room and interest in improvement.  Can you also share the source and location of the additional data you'd like us to check out?

Thanks for using Canvas.

Jim Herries
909-793-2853 ext. 1-2489