[Qgis-developer] Improving QGIS integration in cartographic workfows

[G. Allegri]

Hi all,
here I'm talking both as a client consultant and as a user (cartographer).

As many of you will know the cartographic production workflow often
requires post-production activities involving specific external software to
refine, compose, prepare layouts for printing.

In my context I often have to interface with Adobe softwares professionals
(Illustrator, inDesign, Photoshop) and, except for the simplest projects,
it can be a pain the exchange of QGIS compositions, where a lot of work can
be done but that, in certain situations, is lost because of QGIS Composer's
output limitats.

I love QGIS styling capabilities, I think they're reaching production grade
quality. I think the time is come to consider how the output could be
enhanced to make QGIS part of a complex workflow.
E.g. some collegues would be ready to leave tools like Avenza MAPublisher
if they could interoperate seamlessly between QGIS and Illustrator.

Probably a more advanced PDF output would be the first step.
One of the most important things would be the ability to export map layers
as PDF layers/groups (tree model) to have it back when importing the PDF in
external sw.
I'm just scratching the surface of a wide discussion, which demands a lot
of work, both from a conceptual and technical point of view. Direct
printing (plotting) management is another related topic.

I think it is worth spending some time to investigate it and share ideas,
 and when the it will be matured maybe a funding campaign could be a way to
give it the needed resources.

What's your opinion on this topic?

Regards,
Giovanni
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