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QGIS is a free, open source, cross platform (lin/win/mac) geographical information system (GIS)
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QGIS composer export - issue with projection, scale & scalebar ? #28309

Closed qgib closed 5 years ago

qgib commented 5 years ago

Author Name: Michael Douchin (@mdouchin) Original Redmine Issue: 20489 Affected QGIS version: 2.18.25 Redmine category:map_composer/printing


I am facing what seems to be an issue, or probably something well known by anyone but me...

I have created 2 very simple QGIS projects (attached with data)

Issues noted:

I know projections are biased representations of the reality, but as a user perspective, this 2 behaviours really seem like issues. Every time a user prints a map and take the A4 paper, he is condident he will be able to use his ruler to measure things and convert to real distances according to the scale. Or report N times the scale bar segments to get distances.

I am like someone who just discovers the Earth is not flat...

NB: I have tested this behaviour only in 2.18.


qgib commented 5 years ago

Author Name: Nyall Dawson (@nyalldawson)


What solution would you propose here?


qgib commented 5 years ago

Author Name: Michael Douchin (@mdouchin)


I have no solution at present, because I first need to understand what is considered correct or not in the GIS community, and perhaps I missed something here...

In my humble opinion:

I am completely aware that the Earth is not flat and that the act of projecting data has consequences. It is very clear to me that measuring the width of Antartica in a Mercator map with a ruler and multiplying it by the scale will lead to very wrong distance.

In the 2 attached PDF we have a "real world" square grid layer visible in the layout, and this rendering compared to the scale bar rendering with the background OSM layer make me feel as a chicken in front of a knife (French expression...)

qgib commented 5 years ago

Author Name: Michael Douchin (@mdouchin)


Ok, I finally understand the "issue". There is no QGIS issue, but a lack of explanation I think.

I attached a new PDF with 2 vector layers:

I cannot tell if the 1:10000 scale, as set in the map composer option, and visible in the numeric scale, is calculated in map units or not ?



qgib commented 5 years ago

Author Name: Jürgen Fischer (@jef-n)


Please test with QGIS 3.4 - QGIS 2.18 reached it's end of life.

qgib commented 5 years ago

Author Name: Giovanni Manghi (@gioman)


End of life notice: QGIS 2.18 LTR

Source: http://blog.qgis.org/2019/03/09/end-of-life-notice-qgis-2-18-ltr/

QGIS 3.4 has recently become our new Long Term Release (LTR) version. This is a major step in our history – a long term release version based on the massive updates, library upgrades and improvements that we carried out in the course of the 2.x to 3x upgrade cycle.

We strongly encourage all users who are currently using QGIS 2.18 LTR as their preferred QGIS release to migrate to QGIS 3.4. This new LTR version will receive regular bugfixes for at least one year. It also includes hundreds of new functions, usability improvements, bugfixes, and other goodies. See the relevant changelogs for a good sampling of all the new features that have gone into version 3.4

Most plugins have been either migrated or incorporated into the core QGIS code base.

We strongly discourage the continued use of QGIS 2.18 LTR as it is now officially unsupported, which means we’ll not provide any bug fix releases for it.

You should also note that we intend to close all bug tickets referring to the now obsolete LTR version. Original reporters will receive a notification of the ticket closure and are encouraged to check whether the issue persists in the new LTR, in which case they should reopen the ticket.

If you would like to better understand the QGIS release roadmap, check out our roadmap page! It outlines the schedule for upcoming releases and will help you plan your deployment of QGIS into an operational environment.

The development of QGIS 3.4 LTR has been made possible by the work of hundreds of volunteers, by the investments of companies, professionals, and administrations, and by continuous donations and financial support from many of you. We sincerely thank you all and encourage you to collaborate and support the project even more, for the long term improvement and sustainability of the QGIS project.