[Qgis-user] Comments on the QGIS map composer

[maning sambale]

Dear everyone,

For the past months, I am using QGIS more frequently for my map
composition tasks instead of an external graphics app (like Scribus
and Adobe Illustrator).

Many thanks for the great improvement of the past versions.

Below are my observations and recommendations for future map composer
improvements.  Note that I
am using QGIS 1.4 (on Mac osx 10.5), some issues I will post maybe
solved already in 1.5 so disregard them if they are already solved.

(Yes, I know I should upgrade, but I don't normally upgrade while in
the middle of a critical project :))

Some observed quirks:
1. Text sizes are not the same when viewed in the main map window, map
composer and PDF output.  As a workaround, I try to set map canvas
window to the desired output scale.
2. Sometimes images (using "Add image") with transparent background
doesn't appear in the PDF output.  However, the PNG output shows the
graphic. Setting the opacity to 100% resolves the problem.
3. Long legend text description doesn't wrap around the legend box.
4. Complex line styles (i. e. dashed) doesn't appear in the png output.
4. On a mac, Scale font options uses the mac font option window
instead of the usual QGIS font option window (see image link).
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4036/5074097761_3d6af0fef4_z.jpg

For future improvement requests:
1. Layering - most graphic apps have them.  In a graphics app, I find
it easy to manage my layout when I place the main map in a separate
layer over other map elements (legend, scalebar, reference, other
decorations). Perhaps a layer visibility toggle option.
2. More text layout options - text wrap for long legends, text alignment, etc.
3. Inter-data layer text collision resolution - for example, I have a
point layer for placenames and then another point layer.  A nice
feature that can recognize label collision between these two layers.
4. Multiple text layout (alignment, type size, type style) in a single
text box.  As a workaround, I created several textboxes for different
styling.

All in all, I am a happy QGIS user.  Hope to see more improvements
with QGIS' cartography.

-- 
cheers,
maning
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"Freedom is still the most radical idea of all" -N.Branden
wiki: http://esambale.wikispaces.com/
blog: http://epsg4253.wordpress.com/
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