Sharing ArcGIS documents with character marker symbolsĪ critical thing to know is that if you want to share your ArcMap, ArcScene, or ArcGlobe document with others, they also need to have the font on their machine in order for the symbol to appear correctly. Installing fonts in the Windows fonts directory

To install the font, right-click the font file or files ( e.g., esri_135.ttf), and click Install which will automatically copy the files into the fonts directory (figure 6).įigure 6. This is usually located in C:WindowsFonts. The type of font is identified by the iconįor symbols to appear correctly in ArcMap, the fonts that are used in marker symbols need to be installed in the fonts directory on your computer. You can tell what kind it is by the icon shown in the font drop down in the Symbol Property Editor dialog box (figure 5).įigure 5. There are many different kinds of fonts, but ArcGIS uses either TrueType, OpenType or TypeOne fonts. There are a few things you should know about fonts before you use them to create ArcGIS symbols. The character markers in these symbols can be gridded (e.g., trees in an orchard) or random (e.g., trees in a forest). More often, they are used to create patterns in marker fill symbols (figure 4).

Character markers symbols can be placed along lines in marker line symbols in marker line symbols (figure 3), although this is not a very common use of fonts in ArcGIS symbols. A character marker symbol in the Symbol Property Editor dialogĬharacter marker symbols can also be used to symbolize lines and polygons. These can be used to symbolize points (figure 2).įigure 2. The Esri US Forestry 2 font contains graphic glyphs rather than alphanumeric glyphsįonts can be used to create what are called character marker symbols in ArcGIS. For example, font you choose to use for the English language may not contain diacritical marks that would be required for another language.įigure 1. Be aware that not all fonts contain all the characters in another font. All fonts contain glyphs, but in some fonts the glyphs are pictorial rather than alphanumeric (figure 1). You’re probably familiar with fonts such as Arial or Times New Roman. Things are a little different for 3D symbols and symbols in cartographic representations, so here we are really focusing on fonts for 2D standard symbols in ArcGIS.Ī font is a complete set of characters in a particular size and style of type. We also discuss the need to install fonts so that symbols display correctly and to embed fonts in shared output documents. In other blog entries, we discuss colors and pictures in ArcGIS symbols. Here, we discuss fonts used in character marker symbols, marker line symbols, and marker fill symbols. In this article, we focus on fonts for standard 2D symbols in ArcGIS. There are three primary building blocks of standard symbols in ArcGIS – colors, fonts, and graphic files.

Svg font viewer online