[Qgis-developer] Request for Enhancement: PDF export for post-processing

Thu Mar 4 01:03:30 EST 2010

Hello Tyler!

Thank you for sharing this. Indeed as described in the article on the 
wiki; the main point is: Don't build advanced cartographic composition 
functionality into any of the GIS products that are on the OSGeo stack. 
Less is more.

If the GIS(es) could export to PDF with
* PLAIN vector-work; ordered in PDF layers
* Text as text and not as letter-contours (perhaps even with standard 
font embedded)
* Symbol nodes as dots, ordered per layer based upon attributes

My contact would be well served!

Even putting effort in creating advanced symbology would be to much, 
use-it will want to change even that in his desktop publishing 
environment, so a simple node and the fact the node is on a certain pdf 
layer would be enough information for him to transform all the nodes 
into the symbology he wants.

Right now he has days of work to create a single map of a city 
post-processing the GIS data (mainly cleansing) and then the 
cartographic work starts. If we could remove the cleaning job, it would 
be a win of 2 to 6 days per city map which would be excelent!

Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo) wrote:
> Hi Milo, I just missed you in IRC.  I'm not a QGIS developer but I've
> been trying to clarify an idea a few folks started a couple years back.
> Specifically, establishing a standard way of doing high quality,
> vector/raster output which would do pretty much what you are describing.
>
> Standing back as a user, I think many projects have this challenge and
> could work together if the approach was abstracted and some common
> underlying tools agreed on or tested.
>
> Without writing it all out, my thoughts are here and might be
> interesting to you.  Dane's work on Quantumnik are encouraging and, in
> my little world, are pushing the envelope of what's described here too:
>
> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/OSGeo_Cartographic_Library  See the first two
> sections for clarity.  The rest is a brainstorm that's not well organised.
>
>
>
> Milo van der Linden wrote:
>   
>> Hello People!
>> I have a question.
>>
>> This summer I met someone of use-it http://www.use-it.be/ belgium at the
>> OpenStreetMap State of the Map.
>>
>> Use-IT creates free paper maps for youth-hostels targeting a specific
>> audience. Currently they are using the tool chain:
>> OpenStreetMap website -> export svg -> import in Illustrator -> lots and
>> lots of manual labour and finally produce eye candy like this:
>> http://www.use-it.be/_files/inlineuploads/pages/MAP_O_Brussels.pdf
>>
>> Recently, the contact reached out to me. He could not find a solution within
>> the OpenStreetMap community or it's related technology partners. Now I am
>> helping him out looking at new ways to speed up their labour process.
>>
>> I am investigating the qGIS pdf export and it looks promising in combination
>> with the OpenStreetMap plugin but texts come out as letter-outlines instead
>> of fonts and the PDF layers structure is hard to work with. I would like to
>> know if the developers of the layouter/export would be interested in about 2
>> weeks of work to enhance the layout manager to something that creates pdf
>> that is perfectly fit for post-processing.
>>
>> *****************1. PROCESSING PROBLEM*
>>  This remains almost impossible - only supercomputers are able to
>>  deliver an svg-file of a city of reasonable size, and even that is
>>  still only a 50% shot. It took us a full night to render a city, and
>>  were able to get there only with one of about ten available
>>  xml-rulesheets (called z12). How could this be tackled?
>>
>> This one is tackled with the OSM plugin in combination with the PDF export.
>> As far as I can see, the way osm data is presented in qGIS is simplified,
>> but this is good! We don't need shading, outlines and a whole lot of fencies
>> in this fase. The eye-candy will be created in Illustrator. So, as far as I
>> can see; qGIS tackles this issue.
>>
>> *****************2. LAYER PROBLEM*
>>  The svg does not contain separate layers with a clear content (like
>>  'parks', 'roads', 'rivers'). Only the layers 'Map' and 'Map
>>  Decoration' appear, but all the information is thrown together in
>>  the layer 'Map'. You say it's a matter of someone finding the time
>>  to improve this - but who is the best person to address?
>>
>> In the OpenStreetMap data format, there are basically 3 layers: points,
>> lines and polygons. The "real" layering is organised in attributes called
>> tags. To be more generic; It would be good to push elements to a pdf layer
>> based upon grouping by attribute. In case of openstreetmap data, it would
>> mean applying some rules to strip out the tags into the required attributes
>> and then in the layout manager tell the pdf export to "group by attribute
>> column A"
>>
>>
>> *****************3. TYPOGRAPHICAL PROBLEM*
>>  Layouters prefer to work with Adobe Illustrator to make maps. It's
>>  what they know best, and Inkscape is just not as good yet.
>>  Osmarender renders svg files. It is possible to open an svg-file in
>>  Illustrator, but then you get typographical problems, illustrated
>>  below. Our question: could Osmarender be made to deliver an eps-file
>>  (always works in Inkscape AND Illustrator) instead of an svg?
>>
>>  This is what happened to a small part of Antwerp (Belgium):
>>
>>  SVG IN INKSCAPE
>>   > opens fine
>>   > text is fully editable
>>   > see image 'svg_inkscape'
>>
>>  SVG IN ILLUSTRATOR
>>   > opens upside down and with mistakes
>>   > text is still editable as text (so it's not flattened), but does
>>  not appear on a horizontal path in the street. Furthermore, every
>>  letter is on a different path, so it's impossible to select an
>>  entire word.
>>   > see images 'svg_illustrator' and 'svg_illustrator_detail'
>>
>>  SVG SAVED AS EPS IN INKSCAPE AND THEN OPENED IN ILLUSTRATOR
>>   > opens fine
>>   > text is flattened and not editable anymore, and therefore useless
>>  for layout
>>   > see images 'eps_illustrator' and 'eps_illustrator_detail'
>>
>> **************
>> Again; as far as I can see, it is qGIS to the rescue! The whole process of
>> going from svg through inkscape to Adobe Illustrator is greatly smartened by
>> using PDF export instead. Only one thing is needed here: to export fonts as
>> text and not as letter contours. Horizontal text would be excelent. In that
>> way, the designers can throw away what they do not need and use Illustrators
>> smart tools to make text follow lines and so on.
>>
>> Now, what I would like to know (my contact has some funds to spend on this
>> topic):
>>
>> - Who can I address with my enhancement questions?
>> - Who would be willing to spend about 40 hours on this and at what rate?
>> - Would this fit the roadmap of qGIS development?
>> - Would others like to join up and provide extra funding for this?
>>
>> I am curious to see what responses will be coming!
>>
>> Kind regards,
>>
>> Milo van der Linden
>> +31616598808
>>     
>
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