Dispersion for the point-feature cartographic label placement problem

•Point-feature cartographic label placement problem (PFCLP) arises in design of maps.•This paper examines the PFCLP in the legibility context.•The PFCLP is solved as dispersion problems based on binary integer linear programming.

The point-feature cartographic label placement problem (PFCLP) is a NP-Hard problem arising in design of maps and other graphic objects. For the sake of a better map legibility it is important to avoid overlaps in the process of labeling. This paper examines the PFCLP in the legibility context and proposes a dispersion approach for the problem. It is considered that when all points must to be labeled and overlaps are inevitable, the map can be more readable if overlapping labels are placed more distant from each other. The PFCLP is modeled as a dispersion problem on two mathematical formulations based on binary integer linear programming. Computational tests have provided good results on several generated instances.