# Better edge labels on ortho edges
**URL:** https://forum.graphviz.org/t/better-edge-labels-on-ortho-edges/2425
**Category:** Show and Tell
**Created:** [September 3, 2024, 2:20pm UTC](https://forum.graphviz.org/t/better-edge-labels-on-ortho-edges/2425 "2024-09-03T14:20:04Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@steveroush](https://forum.graphviz.org/u/steveroush)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2024, 2:20pm UTC](https://forum.graphviz.org/t/better-edge-labels-on-ortho-edges/2425/1 "2024-09-03T14:20:04Z")
The **splines** [documentation](https://www.graphviz.org/docs/attrs/splines/) says this about **ortho**
```auto
Currently, the routing does not handle ports or, in dot, edge labels.
```
This left me wondering what **dot** does with ortho edge labels, and what **neato** does differently (if anything)
A quick experiment shows that **dot** does _something_ with ortho edge labels (not _that_ bad a result) (see below) but **neato** produces an arguably better result (also below).
And by pipelining **dot** and **neato** , we can get a **dot** node layout and a **neato** edge and edge label layout. Fun!
The test graph:
```auto
/ ***************************************************************************
compare the results:
dot orthoLabelTest.gv -Tpng -Glabel="edges by dot" >look.dot.png
dot orthoLabelTest.gv |neato -n -Tpng -Glabel="edges by neato" >look.neato.png
**************************************************************************** /
digraph orthoLabelTest {
splines=ortho
a -> {b b1 b2} [label="small"]
b -> {c c1 c2} [label="a\nto\nb"]
c -> {d d1 d2} [label="not very small at all"]
d -> {e e1 e2} [label=<Bold!!>]
}
```
The command lines:
```auto
dot orthoLabelTest.gv -Tpng -Glabel="edges by dot" >look.dot.png
dot orthoLabelTest.gv |neato -n -Tpng -Glabel="edges by neato" >look.neato.png
```
**dot** result:
**neato** result:
