When working with complex molecular systems, clarity matters. But as your structures grow, so does the risk of visual clutter — especially if labels start overlapping or hide critical parts of your model. Labels in SAMSON are crucial for annotating atoms, residues, and other structures, but their auto-placement can sometimes get in your way.
Fortunately, SAMSON provides several ways to reposition labels efficiently, improving both readability and presentation quality. This blog post walks you through multiple strategies to move labels exactly where you want them, whether you’re preparing scientific visuals, building tutorials, or just trying to make sense of your molecular scene.
Why move labels anyway?
By default, when you add labels in SAMSON, they are placed at the geometric center of the selected node(s). This is a great starting point, but it doesn’t always work when:
- Labels overlap with each other
- Labels block important structural elements
- You want to create cleaner figures for publications or teaching
Being able to move labels freely enables higher quality visuals, which is especially valuable for communication and analysis.
Three ways to reposition labels
Here are the methods to relocate labels within the Viewport:
1. Adjust the viewport offset manually in the Inspector
This is ideal for small corrections:
- Select the label you want to move
- Open the Inspector
- Change the Viewport offset to displace the label
This lets you nudge labels to a more suitable location without affecting the nodes themselves.
2. Use the Displace Editor for interactive movement
This method is faster for larger displacements or working with many labels:
- Set the Selection filter to Labels
- Select the label(s) in the Viewport
- Activate the Displace Editor
or tap D as a shortcut - Drag the labels to the desired location
This visual and intuitive method helps you directly place each label where it makes the most sense.
3. Move labels from the Document view
This option is useful when navigating large systems:
- Select the desired label(s) in the Document view
- Activate any Move editor (e.g., Displace editor)
- Adjust their position just as you would in the Viewport
Best practice: don’t forget to adjust the selection filter
To make label movements go smoothly, always double-check your Selection filter. When it’s set to “Labels,” only labels are selectable — useful when refining your visuals. But remember to change it back once you’re done, or you might end up wondering why atoms aren’t responding!
Conclusion
Relocating labels might seem like a minor detail, but it can dramatically improve how your molecular scenes are interpreted. With SAMSON, you have full flexibility to fine-tune annotations and make your models clearer and more engaging to explore.
To learn more, visit the full labeling documentation: https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/labeling/
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can get SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.