Are there any open source tools which can be used for map composing, preferably GUI based. I use Quantum GIS sparingly but I am interested to know if there are others. The tool must be able to read raster/vector layers in standard formats and allow exporting in various formats. Something like GeoPDF export would be a great plus.
Answer
There are many, but QGIS is probably the most robust current offering. A few others:
- Mapnik -- high quality output, can render with Cairo and AGG for very nice results.
- GRASS GIS has multiple ways of composing maps, including wx.psmap
- MapWindow if you're on Windows
- TileMill is a web-based interface for generating maps using Mapnik as the backend
Lastly I'd mention Inkscape, which isn't exclusively for maps, but its ability to parse PDFs and PS files means it can often be a useful post-processing tool for fine-grained control of maps generated in other software.
Most of the OS software uses GDAL/OGR for its actual data input/output, and currently there isn't any support for GeoPDF outputs unfortunately.
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