The moment you’ve been waiting for! Welcome to North Road’s 2019 #24daysofQGIS. It’s our gift to you! Follow this thread to learn new tricks and tips to try in #QGIS. Every day a new bite-size, cinnamon-scented mapping treat to get you through to Christmas Day... 🎄🎁🌎
In 2019 we’ve been inspired by many beautiful looking maps (we’re looking at you #30daymapchallenge!), so this year we are dedicating #24daysofqgis to #dataviz, and sharing with you our insider tips to beautify your maps and data! 🗺️ Let’s begin...
Day 1 of #24daysofqgis: Avoid truncated map label text — set floating layout components like north arrows and scale bars as label "blockers" to automatically avoid hiding parts of labels under these items. #QGIS #dataviz
Day 2 of #24daysofqgis: Tweak the label obstacle strategy for polygon layers -- for "region" type layers you can dramatically improve readability by avoiding label placement over the boundaries of polygons #QGIS #dataviz
Day 3 of #24daysofqgis: When working on complex mapping projects, setup a color scheme for your project and "link" symbol and label components to these colors. This makes applying color tweaks across your whole map an easy one-step process! #QGIS #dataviz
Day 4 of #24daysofqgis: If you’re placing a scalebar over a complex map, consider using some subtle label buffers on the scalebar text to make the numbers more readable. #QGIS #dataviz
Day 5 of #24daysofqgis: Set your map labels to automatically line wrap after 10-15 characters to keep label text “tight” and near the features they represent. #QGIS #dataviz
Day 6 of #24daysofqgis: Get creative with a fading shapeburst fill or offset water lines to suggest the location of oceans, rather then overloading maps with large areas of solid blue fills #qgis #dataviz
Day 7 of #24daysofqgis: Working on a tricky labelling problem? Try using data defined label priority to ensure that the most important labels are always automatically shown in your maps #qgis #dataviz
Day 8 of #24daysofqgis: Lock your map at the desired output scale and use the built-in magnification tool before doing any labelling position tweaks. (This ensures labels will keep their precise hand-placed positions when exporting the map!) #qgis #dataviz #cartography
Day 9 of #24daysofqgis: Try using (very subtle!) shapeburst fills for polygon features instead of a simple solid color fill to give your maps more “pop”! #qgis #dataviz #cartography
To celebrate day 10 of #24daysofqgis we've got our very first ever guest tweeter: dataviz and cartographer extraordinaire @underdarkGIS , and (co)author of "QGIS Map Design" (locatepress.com/qmd2) "Learning QGIS" and "QGIS 2 Cookbook"!!
Day 10 of #24daysofqgis by @underdarkGIS "Leader lines don't have to be boring: the whole range of label styling options is at your finger tips." #qgis #dataviz
@underdarkGIS Day 11 of #24daysofqgis: Never accept the default dark black outlines used when loading polygon layers into a GIS. Instead, match them with the interior color of the fill and then tweak for a much more refined appearance! #qgis #dataviz #cartography
@underdarkGIS Day 12 of #24daysofqgis: Avoid going “full white” or “full black” with your map colors - using a very light grey or very dark grey instead gives you room to refine the weights of your map components later (when you decide that one layer just needs a *bit* more emphasis!) #qgis
@underdarkGIS Day 13 of #24daysofqgis: Try the “topological coloring” algorithm from the Processing toolbox when you’re looking for a quick and easy way to distinguish between neighbouring boundary areas! #qgis #cartography #dataviz
@underdarkGIS Days 14 & 15 of #24daysofqgis, pt 1: If you like the legibility boost provided by label buffers, but don't want them to be so dominant: try using the "label properties" tool and set individual label buffer colors by sampling a nearby color from your map! #qgis #dataviz
Days 14 & 15 of #24daysofqgis, pt 2: This works especially well if you set the color picker to sample an average color over a wider radius! #qgis #dataviz #cartography
Day 16 of #24daysofqgis: Experiment with non-rectangular map shapes! Try filtering the data and only rendering your area of interest alone, instead of a rectangular window containing it. (This works especially well when using drop shadows and outer glows!) #qgis #cartography
For day 17 of #24daysofqgis we're proud to introduce our second guest tweeter, and one seriously talented cartographer: @mapmakerdavid !
Day 17 of #24daysofqgis by @mapmakerdavid "When you want to create a shaded relief from a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) right click on the DEM layer in the Layer panel and select "Stretch Using Current Extent". It will make the layer look more pleasant for rendering later!" #qgis
@mapmakerdavid Day 18 of #24daysofqgis: when map-making, you can borrow techniques from other visual arts and use a subtle photographic style vignette to draw attention to the centre of your map! (Use a narrow shapeburst fill fading from almost transparent black at the edges) #qgis #dataviz
@mapmakerdavid We're closing in on Christmas day, so we've got another early Christmas treat for you: our third special guest tweeter and much admired long-time #dataviz guru, @jscarto!
Day 19 of #24daysofQGIS brought to you by
@jscarto "if you have a vector layer and you want to apply a continuous (unclassed) color stretch to its values, use the ramp_color() expression. Works on both fills and strokes!“ #qgis #cartography
@jscarto "if you have a vector layer and you want to apply a continuous (unclassed) color stretch to its values, use the ramp_color() expression. Works on both fills and strokes!“ #qgis #cartography
@jscarto Day 20 of #24daysofqgis: Want to lock a layout map item at a particular scale? Paste the scale value into the "data defined scale" widget and it will remain fixed, regardless of how you resize your map! (this trick also works for extent values!) #qgis #dataviz #cartography
@jscarto For day 21 of #24daysofqgis, we're proud to introduce our final special guest: cartographic whiz, prolific #qgis developer, and all-round nice guy, @nirvn!
Day 21 of #24daysofqgis by @nirvn: "the is_layer_visible() expression function can be used to dynamically change label color based on the visibility of base layers -- your maps can intelligently adapt and automatically improve their own readability!" #qgis #dataviz #cartography
@nirvn Days 22 & 23 of #24daysofqgis (pt 1) - Expression variables provide a mechanism for influencing the map rendering of symbols and labels on a layout-by-layout (or layout map-by-layout map basis). Eg. use the strpos function along with a custom variable to filter a layer...
Days 22 & 23 of #24daysofqgis (pt 2) ... and then set this variable to specific comma separated lists of the desired features for each individual layout map, to give per-map filtering without messing with multiple layer copies! #qgis #dataviz #cartography
Day 24 of #24daysofqgis: You can greatly improve the appearance of maps by simplifying data to a level appropriate to the desired map scale. Use the grass v.generalize algorithm from #qgis, or hit up the fantastic mapshaper website (mapshaper.org)! #dataviz #cartography
... and that's a wrap for 2019! We hope you enjoyed this series of tips and tricks to beautify your data and maps. Many thanks to all our readers, and our special guests @imhere_asia @jscarto @mapmakerdavid @underdarkGIS ! Merry Christmas to all, and a mappy new year! 🎁🌏🎅
