I’ve been using opensource GIS for a while (GRASS a lot). But they are all very limited when it comes to creating nice maps. I always have to resolve to using ArcGIS to put final touches on maps. Anybody has a suggestion for a free software to use for map design?
QGIS?
http://www.qgis.org/en.html
It comes along with a GRASS Plugin so you can use GRASS datasets.
Malte
Am 17.08.2010 um 17:56 schrieb kapo coulibaly:
I've been using opensource GIS for a while (GRASS a lot). But they are all very limited when it comes to creating nice maps. I always have to resolve to using ArcGIS to put final touches on maps. Anybody has a suggestion for a free software to use for map design?
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On Tue, 17 Aug 2010, kapo coulibaly wrote:
I've been using opensource GIS for a while (GRASS a lot). But they are all
very limited when it comes to creating nice maps. I always have to resolve
to using ArcGIS to put final touches on maps. Anybody has a suggestion for
a free software to use for map design?
Sure: psmap within GRASS. Or you can use any of the graphic applications
such as the GIMP, dia, Inkscape, etc.
I've found that psmap produces outstanding output at a specified scale. It
takes a while to grok all the options and you need to build a text file to
produce what you want (no clicking, dragging, or other GUI stuff), but you
can put what you want exactly where you want it. I suppose you could also
use PSTricks with it but I've not looked at doing so.
Rich
I generally open GRASS data in QGIS, create a basic map and export to svg (or pdf), and then do the finishing touches in Inkscape. This workflow has worked very well for me.
- Jamie
On Tue, Aug 17, 2010 at 8:56 AM, kapo coulibaly <kmcoulib@gmail.com> wrote:
I’ve been using opensource GIS for a while (GRASS a lot). But they are all very limited when it comes to creating nice maps. I always have to resolve to using ArcGIS to put final touches on maps. Anybody has a suggestion for a free software to use for map design?
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Malte,
You also may want to look at what Dylan Beaudette has done at the UC Davis Soil Resource Laboratory with http://casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/drupal/node/96
Go to:
"Cartographic Output via GMT", then select "An example on this website" which is: http://casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/drupal/node/102
Regards,
Tom
Jamie Adams wrote:
I generally open GRASS data in QGIS, create a basic map and export to svg (or pdf), and then do the finishing touches in Inkscape. This workflow has worked very well for me.
- Jamie
On Tue, Aug 17, 2010 at 8:56 AM, kapo coulibaly <kmcoulib@gmail.com <mailto:kmcoulib@gmail.com>> wrote:
I've been using opensource GIS for a while (GRASS a lot). But they
are all very limited when it comes to creating nice maps. I always
have to resolve to using ArcGIS to put final touches on maps.
Anybody has a suggestion for a free software to use for map design?_______________________________________________
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Thomas E Adams
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Thank you all for your suggestions. I’ve used qgis quite a bit, it has a nice GUI but it is not very good with pretty maps. I’ll give the SVG format, GMT and other graphic softwares a try. But how do you handle large numbers of feature (contour labeling)? It can be pretty tedious if you are going to cycle through various attributes attached to the same features. I think there is a case to be made that there is a gap to be filled. Opensource GIS software (Grass GIS, qGIS, Mapwindow, Saga…etc) could use some enhancement in this department.
On Tue, Aug 17, 2010 at 11:59 AM, Malte Martin <malte@perlomat.de> wrote:
QGIS?
http://www.qgis.org/en.htmlIt comes along with a GRASS Plugin so you can use GRASS datasets.
Malte
Am 17.08.2010 um 17:56 schrieb kapo coulibaly:
I’ve been using opensource GIS for a while (GRASS a lot). But they are all very limited when it comes to creating nice maps. I always have to resolve to using ArcGIS to put final touches on maps. Anybody has a suggestion for a free software to use for map design?
grass-user mailing list
grass-user@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/grass-user