Being a chemist, I often draw molecules as balls and sticks of various
colors. The files containing x,y,z coordinates and information on the
colors, size, nature of the atoms and bonds. These files  are converted in
PovRay to obtain quite nice drawings (for instance with a program called
Mol2mol but there are many others). Sometimes, I have to produce plots with
a white background and with atoms in different tones of gray. If the
molecules contain many different atoms, it's no longer easy to distinguish
them and I would like to add the appropriate chemical symbol on some of the
atoms. The letters would have to follow the curvature of spheres of
different sizes and be partly hidden by atoms that are closer to the viewer
if need be. The PovRay files I use give a list of atoms with the
characteristics of each of them. I guess I should add something there to
get what I want but being quite inexperienced in Povray, I don't know how
to proceed. Could someone help me (as I did not find what I was looking for
on the web). Thanks a lot. Jean F.

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