Book Image

Learning QGIS - Third Edition

By : Anita Graser
Book Image

Learning QGIS - Third Edition

By: Anita Graser

Overview of this book

QGIS is a user-friendly open source geographic information system (GIS) that runs on Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, and Windows. The popularity of open source geographic information systems and QGIS in particular has been growing rapidly over the last few years. Learning QGIS Third Edition is a practical, hands-on guide updated for QGIS 2.14 that provides you with clear, step-by-step exercises to help you apply your GIS knowledge to QGIS. Through clear, practical exercises, this book will introduce you to working with QGIS quickly and painlessly. This book takes you from installing and configuring QGIS to handling spatial data to creating great maps. You will learn how to load and visualize existing spatial data and create data from scratch. You will get to know important plugins, perform common geoprocessing and spatial analysis tasks and automate them with Processing. We will cover how to achieve great cartographic output and print maps. Finally, you will learn how to extend QGIS using Python and even create your own plugin.
Table of Contents (13 chapters)
Learning QGIS Third Edition
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Loading background maps


Background maps are very useful for quick checks and to provide orientation, especially if you don't have access to any other base layers. Adding background maps is easy with the help of the QuickMapServices plugin. It provides access to satellite, street, and hybrid maps by different providers.

To install the QuickMapServices plugin, go to Plugins | Manage and Install Plugins. Wait until the list of available plugins has finished loading. Use the filter to look for the QuickMapServices option, as shown in the following screenshot. Select it from the list and click on Install plugin. This is going to take a moment. Once it's done, you will see a short confirmation message. You can then close the installer, and the QuickMapServices plugin will be available through the Web menu.

Note

Note that you have to be online to use these services.

Another fact worth mentioning is that all of these services provide their maps only in Pseudo Mercator (EPSG: 3857). You should change...