Just to add my 2 cents:<div><br></div><div>I think you meant "Avenza Mapublisher"? Their webshop says it's $1249 for a fixed license... Two fixed licenses make a pretty compelling budget for a potential developer... (No, I'm not nominating myself, I do not posses necessary skills, unfortunately). But as I understood it from this thread, this "export to PDF as text" could be done on Macs, using Cairo library?</div>
<div><br></div><div>BR,<br clear="all">--- <br>Zoran Jankovic<br>ZIS-Izrada softvera i savjetovanje / ZIS - Software Development and Consulting<br><br><a href="http://www.zisis.hr">http://www.zisis.hr</a><br><br>M: 00 385 98 682 902<br>
T: 00 385 44 683 374<br><br>A. Senoe 4<br>44320 Kutina<br>Croatia<br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Mar 6, 2010 at 9:05 PM, Milo van der Linden <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:milovanderlinden@gmail.com">milovanderlinden@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
Thank you all for the responses, especially Tyler; I appreciate it!<br>
<br>
I am posting my conclusions for everyone to use if they ever run across issues in getting gis-data professionally printed:<br>
<br>
I went to Bruxelles yesterday to discuss with use-it (<a href="http://www.use-it.be" target="_blank">www.use-it.be</a>) what is currently possible with qGIS in regard to their current working process, use-it is using mac ad their workstation of choice. They where amazed to see that qGIS offers them:<br>
<br>
- Download from the openstreetmap server<br>
- The possibility to select features from an osm node-, line- or polygon- layer by selecting on an attribute in the browser-view and using "save selection as shapefile"<br>
- use the composer to create a pdf that contains line-work, nodes and polygons<br>
<br>
A big cheer to qGIS itself, the fabolous composer and the osm plugin!<br>
<br>
use-it feels that qGIS is a great option for them. Compared to openstreetmaps osmarender, in combination with inkscape qGIS has two plusses:<br>
- the ease of setup thanks to the kynchaos repo, it works without any hassle<br>
- No need for X11 which caused inkscape to fail after a mac OS upgrade<br>
<br>
Which makes qGIS feel like riding first class compared to "hanging under a plane" when using osmarender and inkscape on Mac OS.<br>
<br>
The export of "raw" nodes, raw lines and raw polygons gives them full control in Adobe Illustrator over the graphics.<br>
- It is easy to select elements in Adobe illustrator by line brush and color and group them in layers.<br>
<br>
The one big issue that remains is; text... but as concluded before; that's a qt issue and has nothing to do with the excellence of qGIS<br>
<br>
use-it is well helped by using qGIS. The approach<br>
1) osm-import -> composer -> pdf export<br>
<br>
proofs useful. But they will investigate another approach:<br>
<br>
2) osm-import -> save as shapefiles -> Avensis Mappublisher<br>
<br>
Avensis mappublisher unfortunately is closed source, but for use-it it is simply that they want their nut cracked as effective as possible. And effective in their case is:<br>
1. Fast availability of openstreetmap data in adobe illustrator<br>
2. No need to train adobe illustrator specialists to learn inkscape<br>
3. Full control over text and labels<br>
<br>
They want to create eye-candy and if open source and open data can help that is prefered, but if it cannot, they will not be troubled by putting some closed source into their production chain.<br>
<br>
I hope to hear from them if the 2) solution works. And if it does, it means they will not invest into qGIS to get more options into the composer. If it doesn't, I will be back in touch!<div class="im"><br>
<br>
Kind regards,<br>
<br>
Milo van der Linden<br>
<br>.....</div></blockquote></div><br></div>