[Gvsig_english] gvSIG, pdf and svg and... inkscape

[Anna Hodgkinson]

Dear Wolfgang, dear list,

I have been exporting maps from gvSIG and editing (fine-tuning) them later with Inkscape for a while now and never had any major problems.

My usual workflow is as follows: 
- Create the map layout in gvSIG, do as much fine-tuning as possible before exporting, such as making sure the scalebar is set to the right Intervals etc., but don't worry - you can do a lot of editing in Inkscape, so even rectangles in white that you might want to use to offset map elements against backgrounds can be changed etc.
Make sure you set your margins and page size correct (Map - age setup)!!!

- Export as PDF (use the PDF button on the toolbar).

- Open Inkscape, and do "File - Import" - select the PDF you just created in gvSIG and import it.
The page size should remain the same!

- In Inkscape, ungroup all elements - select all (either ctrl+a or "draw" a frame around all elements), then do "Object - Ungroup". Repeat this several times, you will have to select all objects again before repeatedly ungrouping. Make sure you "draw" your selection frame around the entire batch of objects to be ungrouped - click on them and you may accidentally move them!

Pay attention to the scalebar: You can, after about 3-4 "ungrouping" actions unmerge the numbers from the bar to make it "look nice", same with all sorts of map elements, change colours, line weights etc.

You can either "mask" any vector data that, through ungrouping, has been exploded and now sticks out beyond the margins, or (cheap and easy) draw white, frameless rectangles in the margins to cover them up.

- In Inkscape do "File - save as" and save as PDF. When closing Inkscape you will be prompted to save the drawing as .svg as well - it's worth doing so, as you will be able to do further editing in case you need to.

I hope this helps. I have been using this methodology for over a year now, and find it very simple and good to use!

Please refer to the manual for editing maps in Inkscape, recently published by Oxford Archaeology [1] for details on the above procedure!

All the best,

Anna


[1] http://library.thehumanjourney.net/366/

-- 
Anna Kathrin Hodgkinson MA MSt (Oxon) AIFA EES
Supervisor Geomatics

Oxford Archaeology: Exploring the Human Journey
Mobile: +44 (0)7906 638308 (personal)
Switchboard: +44 (0)1524 541 000
http://thehumanjourney.net





----- Original Message -----
From: "Wolfgang Qual" <wolfgang.qual at muenchen.de>
To: "Users and Developers mailing list" <gvsig_internacional at listserv.gva.es>
Sent: Thursday, 25 November, 2010 1:27:43 PM
Subject: [Gvsig_english] gvSIG, pdf and svg and... inkscape

Dear list,

some time ago, we were discussing about possible output-formats for
gvSIG. We were also talking about inkscape and the necessity of a
svg-outputformat. Today, I found an interesting page where pdf-svg
conversion is described. [1]
After installing pstoedit, I was able to create a svg-file which can be
successfully loaded into inkscape for further editing. However, page
format is not set correctly in inkscape. It all looks a bit strange (as
you may see in the attached screenshot). Anyway, it might be intersting
for you maybe someone is willing to do further experiments. What do you
think?

[1] http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Current_PDF_Support

-- Wolfgang Qual

Landeshauptstadt München
Referat für Gesundheit und Umwelt
Umweltschutz, Umweltvorsorge
RGU-UW 11
Team Klimaschutz, Energie

Bayerstraße 28a
80335 München

Telefon: +49 - 89 - 233 - 4 77 17
Telefax: +49 - 89 - 233 - 4 77 05
E-Mail: wolfgang.qual at muenchen.de
Internet: http://www.muenchen.de/rgu

Bitte beachten Sie die Hinweise zur elektronischen
Kommunikation mit der Landeshauptstadt München:
http://www.muenchen.de/ekomm



[image/png:pdf_svg_inkscape.png]

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