v.label.sa(1)

📦
version 8.4.2 · 8 versions
, in fedora 44

💖 v.label.sa 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to the GRASS GIS User's Manual page for v.label.sa(1) — she's a little legend and she's about to make your labels look so good. sit down, grab a snack 🍓, we're doing this.

✨ NAME ✨

v.label.sa — create optimally placed labels for vector map(s) 👑

🏷️ KEYWORDS 🏷️

vector, paint labels

📜 SYNOPSIS 📜

v.label.sa
v.label.sa --help
v.label.sa map=name  [type=string[,string,...]]   [layer=string]
column=string labels=name font=string  [size=float]   [isize=float]
[charset=string]   [color=string]   [hcolor=string]   [hwidth=float]
[background=string]   [opaque=yes|no]   [border=string]   [width=float]
[--help]  [--verbose]  [--quiet]  [--ui]

🚩 Flags 🚩

  • --help — print the usage summary, so you know what's up
  • --verbose — verbose module output (she tells you everything)
  • --quiet — quiet module output (she says nothing, respectfully)
  • --ui — force launching the GUI dialog, if that's your vibe

🎀 Parameters 🎀

  • map=name [required] — name of the vector map. Or, plot twist, a data source for direct OGR access.
  • type=string[,string,...] — input feature type. Options: point, line, area. Default: point,line,area (all of them, periodt).
  • layer=string — layer number or name. vector features can hold category values in different layers, and this number decides which layer we're using. when you're on direct OGR access, this is the layer name. Default: 1.
  • column=string [required] — name of the attribute column that's giving us the label text
  • labels=name [required] — name for the new paint-label file
  • font=string [required] — name of the TrueType font (the ones listed in the fontcap, iykyk)
  • size=float — label size, in map-units. Default: 100.
  • isize=float — icon size of point features, in map-units. Default: 10.
  • charset=string — character encoding (default: UTF-8). Default: UTF-8.
  • color=string — text color. Options: aqua, black, blue, brown, cyan, gray, green, grey, indigo, magenta, orange, purple, red, violet, white, yellow. Default: black.
  • hcolor=string — highlight color for text. Options: none, aqua, black, blue, brown, cyan, gray, green, grey, indigo, magenta, orange, purple, red, violet, white, yellow. Default: none.
  • hwidth=float — width of highlight coloring. Default: 0.
  • background=string — background color. Options: none, aqua, black, blue, brown, cyan, gray, green, grey, indigo, magenta, orange, purple, red, violet, white, yellow. Default: none.
  • opaque=yes|no — opaque to vector (only relevant if background color is selected, so don't come for her if nothing happens). Options: yes, no. Default: yes.
  • border=string — border color. Options: none, aqua, black, blue, brown, cyan, gray, green, grey, indigo, magenta, orange, purple, red, violet, white, yellow. Default: none.
  • width=float — border width (only for ps.map output, okurrr). Default: 0.

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so what does she actually do. v.label.sa makes a label-file from a GRASS vector map, with labels created from attributes in the attached table. and the labels? they're placed in as optimal a place as possible — that's literally her whole thing, it's giving main character energy 💅. the label file has the same syntax as the one created by v.label, so you already know her.

🦋 EXAMPLE 🦋

North Carolina example, iconic:

# get font names:
d.font -L
v.label.sa roadsmajor labels=roads_labels column=ROAD_NAME color=red \
           background=white size=250 font=Vera
# set region:
g.region raster=lsat7_2002_10 -p
# display:
d.rgb b=lsat7_2002_10 g=lsat7_2002_20 r=lsat7_2002_30
d.vect roadsmajor col=yellow
d.labels roads_labels

Road labeling with v.label.sa (Raleigh, North Carolina, USA, area) 🛣️✨

📚 REFERENCES 📚

Edmondson, Christensen, Marks and Shieber: A General Cartographic Labeling Algorithm, Cartographica, Vol. 33, No. 4, Winter 1996, pp. 13-23. The algorithm works by the principle of Simulated Annealing — yes bestie, she's annealing, and she's annealing simulatedly 🔥.

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

  • d.label
  • d.labels
  • ps.map
  • Wikipedia article on simulated annealing

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Wolf Bergenheim

💻 SOURCE CODE 💻

Available at: v.label.sa source code (history)

Accessed: Saturday Jan 17 05:41:24 2026

Main index | Vector index | Topics index | Keywords index | Graphical index | Full index

© 2003-2025 GRASS Development Team, GRASS GIS 8.4.2 Reference Manual

and that's the whole page bestie 🫶 tysm for reading, mwah. this was the GRASS GIS 8.4.2 Reference Manual, © 2003-2025 GRASS Development Team, and you were kicking it with v.label.sa(1) under GRASS 8.4.2 — accessed Saturday Jan 17 05:41:24 2026. go place some labels optimally, you ate 💖🌸💅

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