[GIS] Labeling contour lines in ArcMap

arcgis-10.1cartographycontourdemelevation

Can anybody give me advice on how to label contours as shown in Figure 2 below? I would like to be able to put the label "on" the line, which is easy enough. But I'd also like for the contour line to have a break in between the label, as shown in Fig. 2. Without the break it is very hard to read the label, unless I use a mask with white background as in Fig 1. Maybe there is some sort of "invisible" masking option that creates the break?? I'm using ArcMap 10.1 on Windows 7 (64 bit)

Figure 1
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Figure 2
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Best Answer

Labeling using the Contour Placement style

Required: ArcMap

Clean (good) Data

Maplex Labeling Enabled. (see http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.1/index.html#/A_quick_tour_of_the_Labeling_toolbar/00s800000014000000/)

The Maplex Label Engine groups the segments of contour features, if the symbology and label match and the features are connected, and treats them as single, long features

enter image description here

Official Documentation on Contour Label Placement

http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.1/index.html#//00s800000064000000

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