[R-sig-Geo] newbie questions - maps

[Paul Hiemstra]

Ashton Shortridge wrote:
> 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 stress that I like qgis very much. Only at the time I tried to 
make pub. quality maps with qgis (using version 0.9-2) it could not 
export these kind pub. quality maps. Maybe now, or in the close future, 
qgis or other open source tools will support pub. quality maps. I would 
like that, being able to just take the north arrow and drag and drop it 
would be much better than specifying the spatial coordinates. So for me 
R was the best solution at the time (the only btw), but qgis might be a 
better alternative in the future. But not yet (please correct me if I'm 
wrong).

cheers,
Paul
>>     
>
> 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
>
>   


-- 
Drs. Paul Hiemstra
Department of Physical Geography
Faculty of Geosciences
University of Utrecht
Heidelberglaan 2
P.O. Box 80.115
3508 TC Utrecht
Phone:  +3130 274 3113 Mon-Tue
Phone:  +3130 253 5773 Wed-Fri
http://intamap.geo.uu.nl/~paul