Cartographic creations – Label a map

Climate change has caused a rapid and alarming decline of polar sea ice in the twentieth century. Since 1978, this decline has been tracked by satellites, resulting in large amounts of data. In this five-part tutorial series, you are a cartographer who needs to make an educational poster-style map to communicate the ongoing loss of sea ice in the Arctic. Your job is to turn a large dataset into a map that tells a meaningful story. You'll learn how to employ cartographic skills in ArcGIS Pro to make a professional map layout.

You are encouraged to complete the first two tutorials in the Cartographic creations in ArcGIS Pro series before this one, but it is not necessary.

In the previous tutorials, you designed symbology for polygons, lines, and raster layers. In this tutorial, you'll label the index years layer so map readers will know what each line represents. You'll also label the larger seas to provide geographic context. You'll convert the labels to annotation so you can have more control over their placement.

This tutorial was last tested on January 28, 2026, using ArcGIS Pro 3.6 . If you're using a different version of ArcGIS Pro, you may encounter different functionality and results.

View final result

Requirements

• ArcGIS Pro (see options for software access)
• User, Publisher, or Administrator role in an ArcGIS organization: ArcGIS Online (see options for software access) or ArcGIS Enterprise (learn more)

Cartographic creations – Label a map

Create labels

You'll create labels for two layers. You'll write a labeling expression and adjust labeling properties.

1. If you completed the earlier tutorial Cartographic creations – Refine symbology, reopen Arctic sea ice.aprx. Otherwise, download Cartographic creations 3.ppkx. Double-click the file to open it in ArcGIS Pro.

   Note:

   A .ppkx file is an ArcGIS Pro project package and may contain maps, data, and other files that you can open in ArcGIS Pro. Learn more about managing .ppkx files in this guide.

2. If prompted, sign in to ArcGIS Pro using your licensed ArcGIS account.

   Note:

   If you don't have access to ArcGIS Pro or an ArcGIS organizational account, see options for software access.

3. In the Contents pane, right-click Index years and choose Label.

   Labels turn on for the layer, although they have not been configured.

4. Right-click Index years and choose Labeling Properties.

   The Label Class pane appears. You'll write an Arcade expression so the labels can convey information from two fields at once: the year and the extent in million square kilometers.

5. If necessary, in the Label Class pane, click the Class tab and click the Label expression tab.

   

6. n the Expression box, delete the existing text and type or copy and paste $feature.Rec_Year + TextFormatting.NewLine + $feature.Rec_Extent.
7. Uncheck Remove extra spaces.

   

8. Click Apply.

   The labels show the year on the top line and the extent on the bottom line.

   

   You'll modify the expression to round the extent number and to add text for the unit.

9. In the Expression box, delete $feature.Rec_Extent and type or copy and paste Round($feature.Rec_Extent,2) + " million km2". Click Apply.

   

   The labels are now clearer to understand. You'll change their appearance to better match the warm colors of your map.

10. In the Label Class pane, click the Symbol tab. In the Appearance section, change the following properties:
    • For Font name, choose Corbel.
    • For Font style, choose Bold Italic.
    • For Size, choose 10 pt.
    • For Color, choose Tecate Dust.

    

    Note:

    If you don't have the Corbel font installed on your computer, choose any other font.

    Tecate Dust is a good color for lines on the map, but it may be too light for text. You'll create a slightly darker version of this color to ensure legible labels.

11. Open the Color menu again and click Color properties. In the Color Editor window, change Color Mode to HSL.

    

    HSL stands for Hue, Saturation, and Lightness. This color model is useful for mixing colors that are similar to existing colors. You'll use it to create a color that is perceptibly the same hue and saturation as Tecate Dust, only darker.

12. Change Lightness to 60 percent and press Enter.

    

13. Click Save color to style. For Name, type Text.
14. Click OK. In the Color Editor window, click OK.

    The labels update on the map.

    

    You can save entire symbols to your Favorites style, in addition to colors. Next, you'll save the text symbol, which includes its color and other font properties, so it can be reused later in other parts of the map.

15. In the Symbology pane, click the Menu button and choose Save symbol to style.

    

16. For Name, type Gold. Click OK.

    On the map, the labels are stacked into three lines. This feels unnatural since the third line contains the unit descriptor for the second line. You'll adjust the stacking property.

17. In the Label Class pane, click the Position tab and the Fitting strategy tab.
18. Under Stack, uncheck Stack label.

    

    The labels now stack over two lines instead of three. The expression you wrote earlier contained the constant TextFormatting.NewLine, which forces a new line after the Year field, regardless of labeling properties.

    

    The labels are all positioned in the middle of the Arctic Ocean. You'll adjust their position later.

Label the seas

Next, you'll make labels for the larger seas in your map's area.

1. In the Contents pane, turn on the NorthernMarineRegions layer. Drag and drop it above the IceExtent_Raster layer.
2. Right-click the symbol for NorthernMarineRegions and choose No color.

   

   The outlines of the features are still visible. You'll use these lines as guides for labeling and remove them from the map later.

3. With the NorthernMarineRegions layer selected, on the ribbon, click the Labeling tab. In the Layer group, click Label.

   

   Labels appear on the map.

4. In the Text Symbol group, click Gold.

   

   You'll adjust the stacking properties of the labels so they stack as much as possible. This will make them more compact and easier to place in tight spaces.

5. In the Label Class pane, on the Position tab, on the Fitting Strategy tab, in the Stacking separators box, check the first Forced split box.

   

   This setting forces the labels to split onto a new line after every space.

   There are more labels on this map than are needed to provide geographic context. You'll remove the labels for smaller areas.

6. Click the Conflict resolution tab.

   

7. Under Minimum feature size, in the middle menu, type 3,000,000. Leave the other menus set to Perimeter and Map units.

   

   Now, only the larger seas are labeled.

   

8. Close the Label Class pane.

Convert labels to annotation

In ArcGIS, labeling is an automated process, controlled by labeling properties. If you require more control over the position or appearance of individual labels, you can convert them to annotation. You'll convert the labels in this map to annotation and reposition some of them.

1. Zoom out on the map until you can see the entire Arctic circle.

   Only labels currently in view will be converted to annotation.

2. In the Contents pane, right-click Ocean and choose Label to ensure that labeling is turned off for this layer.

   

3. On the ribbon, click the Map tab. In the Labeling group, click the bottom part of the Convert button and choose Convert Labels To Annotation.

   

4. In the Geoprocessing pane, for Conversion Scale, type 22,000,000 and press Enter.

   You'll use this scale for your layout later.

5. Ensure that Convert is set to All layers in map.
6. Ensure that Output Geodatabase is set to Arctic sea ice.gdb.

   

7. For the remaining properties, accept the default values.

   

8. Click Run.

   Labeling has been turned off for your map layers. A new group layer, named GroupAnno, is added to the Contents pane. It contains two annotation feature classes. These are similar to feature classes—they have attribute tables and they can be modified with layer properties.

   You'll use a blend mode to give the annotation features the same appearance as the Index years layer.

9. Close the Geoprocessing pane.
10. In the Contents pane, ensure that GroupAnno is selected. On the ribbon, click the Group Layer tab.
11. In the Effects group, change Layer Blend to Linear Burn.

    

    The labels are now easier to read on the orange parts of the map.

    

Edit annotation

Next, you'll edit the annotation features. You'll delete some that aren't useful for your map and move other ones to new positions.

1. On the ribbon, click the Edit tab. In the Tools group, click Annotation.

   

2. On the map, click and drag a box around the Hudson Bay label to select it.

   

3. On the ribbon, in the Features group, click Delete. In the Delete window, click Yes.
4. Delete the following labels, if they exist:
   • North Pacific Ocean
   • Gulf of Alaska
   • Bering Sea
   • Sea of Okhotsk
   • North Sea
   • North Atlantic Ocean
   • Labrador Sea

   Tip:

   Press and hold the Shift key to select multiple labels at once.

5. Also delete any labels that are farther south than the ones listed above.
6. Select the 1980 label. Drag it to place it close to the north coast of Alaska.

   

7. Move the 2000 label close the middle index line.
8. Move the 2020 label close to the innermost index line.

   

9. Select the Greenland Sea label. Drag it off of the pink area so it is easier to read. Keep it within the gray lines.

   

10. Move the other labels as you like. Try to place the labels so they don't overlap with other symbol lines.

    Most of the labels are center-aligned, but one or two may be improved by using a different alignment. You'll change the alignment for one of the labels, and you can repeat the steps for other labels if necessary.

11. Select The North Western Passages label. On the ribbon, on the Edit tab, in the Selection group, click Attributes.

    

12. If necessary, in the lower half of the Attributes pane, click the Left alignment button.

    

13. Ensure that Auto Apply is turned on. On the map, place The North Western Passages label on the largest nearby island (Victoria Island).

    

14. When you've finished editing labels, on the ribbon, on the Edit tab, in the Selection group, click Clear.

    

15. In the Manage Edits group, click Save. In the Save Edits window, click Yes.
16. Close the Attributes pane and the Modify Features pane.
17. In the Contents pane, uncheck the NorthernMarineRegions layer.

    

    The region boundaries are turned off.

    

18. On the Quick Access Toolbar, click Save Project.

    

In this tutorial, you used an Arcade expression, labeling properties, and annotation editing to create a clearly labeled map. In the next tutorial, you'll design a layout to arrange your map and related information for a poster.

You can find all of the tutorials in this series at Cartographic creations in ArcGIS Pro. You can find more cartography tutorials on the Introduction to Cartography page.

You can find more tutorials in the tutorial gallery.

Acknowledgements

• Arctic Sea Ice Extent: Fetterer, F., K. Knowles, W. N. Meier, M. Savoie, and A. K. Windnagel. 2017, updated daily. Sea Ice Index, Version 3. [Ice extent]. Boulder, Colorado, United States. NSIDC: National Snow and Ice Data Center. doi: https://doi.org/10.7265/N5K072F8 [June 2019].
• World Countries (Generalized): Esri; Garmin International, Inc.; United States Central Intelligence Agency; National Geographic Society.
• Arctic circle: World Georeference Lines, Esri.
• Graticule lines: Natural Earth.
• Marine Areas: Natural Earth.