[Qgis-user] printing with metis?

[Andreas Neumann]

Hi all,

Marco (Pasetti) - can you elaborate on what you want to see adressed
regarding the usability in the print composer? Any concrete suggestions?
As you said, it would be better to discuss the usability problems first
before everything is implemented.

Marcos (Hugentoblers) work will adress (or already adresses) the following
features:

* bugfixes for scaling of line-widths, symbol sizes and label sizes
* scalebar support (various options and designs)
* easy moving and scaling of objects (arrow key support, scaling with
handlers)
* changing order of objects (to front/to back)
* gridlines
* better graphical design and more options regarding legends
* north arrow support (predefined north arrows and import through SVG)
* easier change of graphical properties of elements, e.g. background, etc
* exact numerical placement
* grouping/ungrouping of elements
* alignment and snapping of elements

His work is sponsored by the Kanton of Solothurn and the City of Uster,
both located in Switzerland.

Marco also head to do some behind-the-scenes changes in the architecture
of the print composer to enable some of the features.

If you need more technical details, you can ask Marco.

--> more comments below:

>> 2. show an info label function on-mouse-over the objects, showing out
>> their names (such as "Map1", and so on...); it would be very useful if
>> you are creating a map layout with multiple map tiles

you mean a "tooltip"? - this would be a good idea!

>> I don't know what Marco is doing with the new Map Composer; but I
>> think that we (he) should take in mind that the usability is the firt
>> real problem for the actual Map Composer Tool, and we should first fix
>> that problem before to add new features to the new tool to come
>>
> In my opinion, lack of features is the main issue. We can live with the
> usability. What's needed, in addition to what you mentioned above, are:
> 1- North arrows
> 2- better looking scale bar
> 3- Grids and graticules (!)

all of these should be handled by Marco H.'s work.

Andreas

-- 
Andreas Neumann
Böschacherstrasse 6, CH-8624 Grüt/Gossau, Switzerland
Email: a.neumann at carto.net, Web:
* http://www.carto.net/ (Carto and SVG resources)
* http://www.carto.net/neumann/ (personal page)
* http://www.svgopen.org/ (SVG Open Conference)
* http://www.geofoto.ch/ (Georeferenced Photos of Switzerland)