[OSGeo-Discuss] Is there an Open Source software application thatwill draw a graticule on a map?

[P Kishor]

Brent,

I am not sure ArcView or its open source replacement can produce the
kind of stuff Markus has been producing (maybe it can, just that I
haven't seen any). Most, really, really good cartographic output, the
kind you can print at 1500 dpi on a Scitex printer at 8 feet by 20
feet requires a helluva lot of work, and lots of planning. If you pick
up ESRI's map book, almost none of that stuff is produced with ArcView
and home laser printer. It is likely, however, that when you say "high
quality cartography," you are not referring to this kind of stuff.

Markus Neteler's stuff seemed to me of such beauty (raster software
does make for wonderful output) that it is something worth trying to
recreate. I am sure though that it is not point and click. Best is to
let Markus opine on this.

On 9/7/07, Brent Fraser <bfraser at geoanalytic.com> wrote:
> Puneet,
>
>   I'm hoping that (someday?) high quality cartography WILL
> be point-and-click.  The three apps I looked at come pretty
> close:
>     uDig    - sophisticated, complicated GUI; focus on GIS
> not cartography
>     QGIS    - simple GUI, a print composer, but features
> (e.g. a real graticule) missing
>     gvSIG   - look and feel of ArcView 3.x (the good and the
> bad), but no graticule
>
>
>   I think Paul Ramsey said it best in the Directions Mag
> interview
> (http://www.directionsmag.com/article.php?article_id=2517&tr
> v=1):
>
> "The first project to produce a stable and complete ArcView
> 3 replacement will gobble up a huge user share, and become
> the default application for building the "high end" analysis
> and cartography functionality."
>
> Brent Fraser
> GeoAnalytic Inc.
> Calgary, Alberta
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "P Kishor" <punk.kish at gmail.com>
> To: "OSGeo Discussions" <discuss at lists.osgeo.org>
> Sent: Friday, September 07, 2007 6:24 AM
> Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Is there an Open Source
> software application thatwill draw a graticule on a map?
>
>
> > On 9/6/07, Brent Fraser <bfraser at geoanalytic.com> wrote:
> > ,,
> > > Yikes!  Is National-Topographic-Series quality
> cartography
> > > dead?  Am I destined to print only pastel polygon
> "diagrams"
> > > on letter size paper if I adopt Open Source?  ;)
> >
> > Write an emai to Markus Neteler and ask him for samples of
> stuff he
> > has produced with Grass, a real GIS. The quality will blow
> you away.
> > Granted, I have not seen that stuff on a large piece of
> paper, but
> > even on the screen, it looks gorgeous. It is probably not
> easy to
> > produce that kind of stuff, but good quality stuff never
> is point and
> > click.
> >
> > (MapServer is not a GIS... it says so on the box it comes
> in).
> > >
>
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-- 
Puneet Kishor
http://punkish.eidesis.org/
Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies
http://www.nelson.wisc.edu/
Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo)
http://www.osgeo.org/
Summer 2007 S&T Policy Fellow, The National Academies
http://www.nas.edu/