Esri Mapping Center - Ask a Cartographer

Draft watermark

October 07 2008 | 3 comments
Categories: Map Elements, Page Layout, Publishing

Our agency is looking at mapping standards and one area is placing a DRAFT 'watermark' onto a map layout template until after the map has been reviewed. Currently when we use a text box it gets in the way of editing elements in the layout. Has anyone addressed this issue?

Mapping Center Answer:

The main issue here is that a watermark, or more properly an element that acts as a watermark, will be problematic because it eventually be covered up (dataframe with transparency) or, like you describe, get in the way of selecting other elements.

Here are a couple of other options:

1. Add the watermark as a raster layer to the dataframe--use the georeferencing toolbar to center the image in the current extent. This won't work for all maps.

2. Use any of the "stamping" ArcObjects samples. This sort of approach can be hooked up, or run by a database that manages the status of maps. The downside is requiring ArcObjects programming expertise.

For a number of my maps that are in draft state, I made a red text box with an outline and the word DRAFT and place a few of those around the layout--making for less intrusive elements.

Another idea posted by Aileen Buckley on Oct 8 2008 1:42AM

You might also think about creating this as annotation and placing this layer under all your other data layers so that it will not be the first thing selected (depending on how you set up the selectable layers, of course.)

multiple scales in a tile cache? posted by Lars Huttar on Feb 7 2011 2:51PM

I'm wondering how you would watermark a tile cache, so that at every scale level, each tile has at least part of a watermark on it.

Watermarking tiles posted by Charlie Frye on Feb 8 2011 10:29AM

I cannot think of a way to specifically watermark individual tiles. The very thought makes me pause and think about the aesthetic impact (no good can come of it, can it?)

Anyway, there is a way to approach this. In the Cartography Toolbox, within the Cartography Toolbox and then the Annotation toolset, is a tool called Map Server Cache Tiling Scheme to Polygons. By using this tool with your tiling scheme, you could generate polygons that you could then add to your map, and add a watermark (transparent marker fill with one small marker for example) in the lower corner of a super tile. That would add a lot of watermarks. It's just an idea--most people watermark the application viewer.

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