4 replies to this topic

[ArcMapper]

I'm still getting my feet wet with QGIS. It's really great so far, except the labelling. I tried the Help and google, but to no avail. It seems like you can only label automatically and then.....that's IT. In ArcGIS, I'm used to making an annotation feature class and being able to edit each piece individually.

Will QGIS let you put labels in a new layer? And/or is there a way to move them/edit/delete individually? There HAS to be. Otherwise, how would you be able to make a map properly?? Thanks for any help!

[Jimbo]

It looks as though the text placement options are quite limited in QGis, unfortunately as I tried to access the help manual I got a bad connection since it won't let me in. However I discovered by right clicking the layer & then accessing properties there is a label option that is available. If you scroll all the way down in the text label options screen notice that there is the option called text called "Define User Position" which bases text placement on attributes in your table. It reminds me of another version of text placement from the ArcInfo days & currently from Manifold GIS where you had to play around with label positioning. QGis is still in development & it's opensource at least for now. So from what I see of this GIS it looks very good but in all honestly with all the tools in QGis I can see us paying at least $500 for version two.

[Nick H]

... So from what I see of this GIS it looks very good but in all honestly with all the tools in QGis I can see us paying at least $500 for version two.

I don't think so, it will remain free, open-source. There was a mini-panic in the QGIS community recently caused by a blog in which a QGIS developer stated that the software might have to go commercial. Published on 1st April.

Regarding labels, there is a new smart labelling plug-in for QGIS that is worth a look. It does a good job of avoiding collisions and can do things like putting curved labels on curved lines.

Regards, N.

[19° norte]

I don't think so, it will remain free, open-source.

I think so, too.
Originally Quantum GIS was just a geo data viewer and has evolved into a powerful tool in just a few years' time. For exactly $ 0.00 you get a stable software, quite a few specialized geospacial function plugins, and a very helpful user and developer community - something you don't get with any of the proprietary GIS software companies although you pay big bucks.

[Igor Winiarczyk]

[quote name='Nick H' post='31578' date='Apr 27 2010, 01:26 PM'][quote name='Hasdrubal' post='31560' date='Apr 26 2010, 12:44 PM'
Regarding labels, there is a new smart labelling plug-in for QGIS that is worth a look. It does a good job of avoiding collisions and can do things like putting curved labels on curved lines.[/quote]

The labeling plug in works until you go to the printout editor, where they magically disappear. Supposedly the next version (1.5?) will have this bug fixed, but for now it seems that you either live with the result of the automatic labeller or paste labels in yourself...