10. ArcGIS® Renderers and Symbols Supported

ArcGIS® supports several layer renderers and symbol types. In this paragraph an overview of supported renderers and possible limitations during conversion to Styled Layer Descriptor (SLD) files are listed. The conversion is optimized for GeoServer supporting some of the SLD extensions that are provided, like dynamic symbolizers and chart renderers.

Although using GeoServer SLD extensions helps to create a high quality SLD, they will not always give the exact same result as the ArcGIS Desktop® symbology. The GeoServer SLD extensions are continuously improved, but there are the following limitations:

• Fonts used in symbols of the layers configured in ArcGIS Desktop® should be available on the GeoServer map server. This is not always the case. The SLD engine maps a set of Esri® default font symbols to Webdings and Wingdings font symbols. These fonts should then be available on the server running GeoServer.

Feature layers

Feature layer renderers

Renderer	Supported
Features
Single Symbol
Categories
Unique values
Unique values, many fields
Match to symbols in a style	[1]
Quantities
Graduated colors
Graduated symbols
Proportional symbols
Dot density	[2]
Charts [3]
Pie
Bar/Column
Stacked
Multiple attributes
Quantity by category

[1]

Default Single Symbol renderer is used

[2]

The symbols are processed, but only the background color is used to create the fill.

[3]

Only for GeoServer SLD. The Chart API in GeoServer must be installed.

Point symbols

Symbol type	Supported
Character marker symbol	[4]
Simple Marker symbol	[5]
Picture Marker Symbol	[6]
Arrow Marker Symbol	[7]

[4]

The font (True Type Font) should be available to GeoServer

[5]

Supported SLD markers: Circle, Square, Cross and X. The Diamond is mapped to circle

[6]

Supported from GeoServer version 2.8 and higher, supported for MapServer 6.0.0 and higher

[7]

These are mapped to an arrow symbol

Line symbols

Symbol type	Supported
Cartographic line symbol
Hash line symbol
Marker line symbol
Picture line symbol	[8]
Simple line symbol

[8]

Supported from GeoServer version 2.8 and higher, supported for MapServer 6.0.0 and higher

Polygon symbols

Symbol type	Supported
Line fill symbol
Marker fill symbol
Picture fill symbol	[9]
Simple fill symbol

[9]

Supported from GeoServer version 2.8 and higher, supported for MapServer 6.0.0 and higher

Labeling

Symbol type	Supported
Halo
Multiple fields labeling	[10]
Rotation

[10]

Only string concatanation expressions supported like: [CITY_NAME] + "(" + [STATE_NAME] + "")" No programming expressions supported.

Raster layers

Raster layer renderers

Symbol type	Supported
Unique values
Classified
Stretched
Color map
Discrete color