Hi,
On Fri, 4 Mar 2011, Andreas Neumann wrote:
I think you would be better off using a GIS than Inkscape for the compilation of your map. QGIS would be a good, GPL based, software for your task.
Thank you for bringing qgis to my attention, but I'm not sure I'll use it for this project: I already know how to use inkscape and how to parse SVG, so I might simply go for SVG with a scale factor, as suggested by Terry (thank you Terry!).
Moreover I still haven't succeeded to install qgis with macports. I'm currently downloading the packages from www.kyngchaos.com, but it will be my last try to get it running.
regarding SVG and units: in QGIS you can use SVG for several purposes:
- point symbol definitions: You can use the SVG symbol and define its
box in either map units or mm. The former scales with the zoom factor of the map, the latter stays at constant size, regardless of zoom factor. You can rotate and scale the symbols.
- vector pattern definitions (uses the whole content of an SVG file,
not a pattern definition) - you can repeat/scale/rotate the pattern
- as a vector graphics in a map layout (print composer)
In all of these options, you don't define the objects in map units, but rather paper units. QGIS uses the SVG and scales it, starting from the viewBox/width/height settings.
Thank you for these explanations, this is the kind of data I was looking for.
Regards