[Qgis-user] Text styling and placement

[Andrew Chapman]

I'm using 1.7.0 and trying to define a set of styles for use with text
layers (point shapefiles). There are thousands of such layers (UK Ordnance
Survey) which use attribute codes to classify logical types of text.
What I ideally want to do is use a unique attribute value in a similar way
to styling a point, but for the text, i.e. say set text colour, font, bold,
etc based on a logical attribute value rather than having additional
attributes per feature. The same layer may need to be styled in several
different ways depending on use (e.g. black and white, high contrast, etc)
so adding further attributes isn't attractive. Also, as these should be
non-changeable layers for most users, it could be advantageous for them to
be read-only.
I could load the layer many times, each with each layer only showing (and
therefore styling) a single logical text type, but this could add a LOT of
layers with a major impact on rendering speed. I could save the layer as
several layers, but this would be time consuming to do and also be much
slower to render.
Have I missed a trick, or is this something that I should request as an
enhancement?

Andrew