Looking for software recommendations

[johnvanvliet]

there is a bit of a steep learning curve but Qgis is under the GPL license and free
http://www.qgis.org/en/site/

however Arcgis is the industry standard but at a monopoly price of $1500+


as for shading inkscape and gimp are great tools

[silk186]

Thanks johnvanvliet, I've installed Qgis and it does indeed seem to be on the difficult side to get started with.
I've checked and I can get ArcGIS from UCL so that is also an option if it is more suitable and easier to use than Qgis.

Viz World and Viz Curious Maps seem to be the standard in broadcasting but doesn't even seem to have a trial version.

[silk186]

Now that is seems I would be best served with Qgis (alternative is Arcgis) + illustrator (alternative is Gimp) i'm looking for tutorials.
I've looked in the tutorial section and did see anything for non-fantasy mapping with Qgis.
Can anyone point me in the right direction?


***I've done some reading between Arcgis and Qgis, seems that Arcgis can be better is some very complicated cases but Qgis has not liscencing restrictions and is much more responsive in comparison to complaints of long loading times and crashes with Arcgis. Either will work for most users, I already have Qgis installed.

[arthurnottheking]

Hi silk186,
Have you tried any Udemy course? Here's the one I'm planning to choose: Core Spatial Data Analysis: Introductory essays about using GIS with R and QGIS. What illustrator are you using?
Also: What are the steps to export correctly from QGIS to Adobe Illustrator? Thanks.

[Helena Robertson]

Hi silk186,
Have you tried any Udemy course? Here's the one I'm planning to choose: Core Spatial Data Analysis: Introductory essays about using GIS with R and QGIS. What illustrator are you using?
Also: What are the steps to export correctly from QGIS to Adobe Illustrator? Thanks.

Hi! Thank you