When building or analyzing complex molecular systems, visual clarity can make a critical difference in understanding structure-function relationships. Labels are small visual elements with a big role: they display information that helps researchers quickly identify atoms, residues, functional groups, or measurements.
But here’s the challenge: as molecular models grow more detailed, default labels can sometimes clutter the Viewport or fade at inconvenient times. And standardizing how labels appear—not just their presence but their font, color, and visibility behavior—can be tedious without the right tools.
If you’ve ever wished your visual annotations in your molecular models looked cleaner, stood out better, or adapted as you zoomed in and out, SAMSON has flexible labeling options that you might not have fully explored.
Controlling Visibility with Precision
Label visibility in SAMSON adapts automatically based on your zoom level. But this default behavior isn’t always ideal. For example, when zoomed out, atom labels may disappear, and only molecule labels remain visible. What if you want residue labels to stay visible longer, or hide a label entirely?
For that, you can fine-tune display radii—minimum and maximum radii at which the label is visible. To do this:
- Select the label in the document or viewport.
- Open the Inspector panel.
- Adjust the Minimum Display Radius and Maximum Display Radius.
This parameter-based approach not only improves visual clarity but helps reduce distraction at different scales. For instance, when creating visualizations for presentations or publications, this can result in cleaner figures.
Managing Label Appearance: Font & Color
Default text styles might not always work for every use case. Labels for key regions of interest might need to stand out, while secondary notes can fade into the background.
To change the font of selected labels:
- Select the labels you want to change.
- In the Inspector, choose Choose font…
- Alternatively, reset the font to the global default by double-clicking the Font field.
To change the color of labels, SAMSON offers multiple intuitive methods—from using the context toolbar in the Document view, to applying a constant color via the Inspector:
That’s not all—you can also make labels semi-transparent, which is helpful when overlaying them on dense structural areas.
The Value of Clean Highlighting
For molecular modelers working on complex biomolecules, clean visuals are essential. When you’re sharing your results, giving a seminar, or writing a paper, the ability to control how and when your labels appear can reduce confusion and improve communication.
By taking a few minutes to customize label appearance and behavior, you can align your annotations with your scientific message.
And all these features—fine control over visibility, display radius tuning, font and color edits—are not only available but deeply integrated in SAMSON’s labeling system.
To explore all the label customization options available in SAMSON, visit the full labeling documentation.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download SAMSON at samson-connect.net.