[R-sig-Geo] newbie questions - maps

[Ashton Shortridge]

On Monday 16 November 2009 08:53:03 Carson Farmer wrote:
> >... In addition, I use linux (Debian) and the desktop GIS tools that
> > I tried (svSig, Qgis, and some more) did not provide publication quality
> > maps.
> 
> I would strongly suggest you take another look at some of these
> packages (especially QGIS).
> These are relatively young projects, and are growing (changing)
> quickly. For example, just
> recently, some very advanced symbology enhancements have been made to
> the QGIS project,
> and will likely be available in the next release (due out next month).
> Though of course, for graphs
> and other statistical outputs, nothing beats R!
> 
> Carson
> 

Let me strongly second Carson's points. As a Debian user, I like QGIS and use 
it for my own visualization purposes. Being able to drag and drop a shapefile 
is pretty awesome. I suspect QGIS will continue to improve in its ability to 
render maps. That said, I don't think publication-quality output is what these 
software are about, at least not yet. R on the other hand gives you tremendous 
control. I used it exclusively for all maps, as well as other graphics, in my 
latest article.

The same goes for non-free GIS software, by the way. My cartographer 
colleagues who use ArcGIS generally haul mapping output from there into other 
packages for font and other effect rendering.

Yours,

Ashton

-- 
Ashton Shortridge
Associate Professor			ashton at msu.edu
Dept of Geography			http://www.msu.edu/~ashton
235 Geography Building		ph (517) 432-3561
Michigan State University		fx (517) 432-1671