NACIS 2016 Presentation Emily Eros, Red Cross To produce quality maps for disaster situations, the American Red Cross constantly struggles to balance rapid deadlines with good cartographic design. We also believe in using free and open software whenever possible. Historically, we struggled to make print-ready maps using just QGIS; its print composer isn't intuitive and certain functionalities just aren’t there. So until recently, we used QGIS to process our data and then performed styling in Illustrator. This method works, but adds extra time and complexity that just isn’t realistic in the aftermath of a major earthquake. Over the past year, we’ve channeled our energy into figuring out tricks and processes for doing cartography entirely within Q. In this session, we’ll show how to do some of our favorite styling effects without needing Adobe. We’ll demonstrate how to make the print composer work. And we’ll share some of the limitations we’re still experiencing.

1. @emilyeros
Pretty maps
price tag
without the
Cartography with just QGIS

2. Maps at the Red Cross

3. “could you make it 7 feet long?”

4. + Deadlines
+ Design
+ Principles

5. Good maps have to be made in Adobe

6. 1. Rule-based styles
github.com/AmericanRedCross/qgis-styles
github.com/AmericanRedCross/workflows

7. Base maps (adapted from Anita Graser) + vector icons

8. Thematic maps (buildings)

9. Thematic maps (roads)

10. Rule-based styling for OSM data using SQL

11. Rule-based styling for OSM data using SQL

12. Hillshades and artsy stuff

13. Base maps for printing and navigation

14. 2. Print composer
and page elements

15. Thanks
3. Limitations

16. @emilyeros
Thanks