The Letterer

overlaps—

points—

energy—

idle

A cartographer's hardest chore, automated. Point-Feature Label Placement is NP-hard: drop a name beside every survey station so that no two labels collide, none crosses the river, and all stay on the sheet — while still reading to each dot's preferred side. This is the classic candidate-slot + simulated-annealing solver (Christensen–Marks–Shieber, 1995). Hit Anneal and watch the cloud of clashing names cool into a clean layout.

Stations

Candidate model

Anneal speed

River & lake (no-go zones)

Show candidate slots (for the lit point)

Seed

2718

Reading the plate. Each ● is a survey station; its name sits in one of 4 or 8 slots around it, joined by a hair-thin leader. The faint dotted boxes show the candidate slots the engine chose between for the lit station — click any dot to light it. Red labels are still in conflict; the counter falls to 0 as it settles. Click empty sheet to add a station; the engine re-letters live.