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#### 11.5.6 Arrow Labels and Markers

You can add labels and markers to arrows/lines. Markers are dots, tick marks, etc. along the line.

To add a single label, simply add a label to the arrow using the `label` attribute or the colon-label syntax as for blocks: `a->b: This is the label.;` The position of the label can be set using the `label.align` attribute, with the values of 0 and 100 representing the start and end of the arrow (with values proportionally in between, but you can also have negative values or above 100%). With `label.pos` you can set how the label is placed in relation to the arrow line. It can take one of `left`, `right`, `above`, `below` or `center`, the latter meaning onto the line. The label orientation can be influenced with `label.orient` the same way as for blocks.

To add a single marker, use the `label.align` to set its position and optionally the `marker.type` attribute to set its shape, using any of the arrowhead types listed in Arrow and Line Attributes. You can apply to any of the arrowhead attributes to `marker.*`, specifically `marker.type`, `marker.gvtype` (to set the arrowhead type in graphviz style), `marker.size` and `marker.color`.

You can add more labels by specifying them in curly braces after the arrow. Their syntax is as follows.

    [mark] [extend] <position> [<attributes>];

`<position>` is specified as a) a percentage number (followed by a percentage sign); b) a percentage number (followed by a percentage sign) followed by an optional sign and an offset number in pixels; or c) an offset number in pixels (no percentage sign). The percentage number is interpreted so that 0% means the start of the arrow, 100% means its entire length. A positive percentage number is measured from the start of the arrow forward, while a negative value means measuring it from the end of the arrow backwards. Thus, 99% is the same as -1%. The offset value is then added/substracted from this position (interpreted in pixels). If only a pixel value is specified, a positive value is measured from the start of the arrow forward, a negative value backward.

If you specify `extend`, the start of the measurement changes: for positive values we start to measure from the end of the arrow forward (beyond the end of the arrow), for negative values we start measuring from the start of the arrows (before the start). It is actually simpler than it sounds, here are a few examples.

Adding the `mark` keyword before the position will add a marker at the designated position. In this case there is no need to specity a label, if you just want the marker. The default type for markers is `marker.gvstyle=tick`, which is a thin line perpendicular to the arrow line.

Among attributes you can use `marker.*` to set the marker style; `label`, `text.*`, `label.pos` and `label.orient` to specify the label and its details; and `line.*`, `fill.*` and `shadow.*` to specify a box around the label.

As a shorthand, you can omit the curly braces and simply specify the labels after the arrow specification.

Next: Defining Coordinates, Previous: Defining Arrows and Lines, Up: Arrows in Block Diagrams [Contents]