People who make a lot of maps are familiar with a standard set of methods using standard software. The general strategy is to do the rough map composition using geographic information systems software. These tools let the mapmaker play around with different data, scales and layout relatively easily. Then, when the layout is almost right, mapmakers will export the rough map from geographic information systems software and import it into vector drawing software to make the map gorgeous and get it ready for printing or display. The standard tools have become ArcGIS for preliminary layout and Adobe Creative Suite for final composition. Both are wonderfully powerful tools but are, sadly, expensive.

QGIS and Inkscape are free-and-open-source software tools with great potential for mapmaking. They can be used in a workflow that is not terribly different from that used by many mapmaking professionals who do their preliminary layout work with ESRI’s ArcGIS and final composition with Adobe Illustrator. QGIS is remarkably powerful GIS software, ideal for rough map layout. Inkscape is delightful vector editing software, superb for final layout. Sadly, the process of moving work between the two applications is a bit more problematic than it is between ArcMap and Illustrator.

Working in QGIS and Inkscape, we have two basic strategies:

1. Export the map from QGIS in .svg (scalable vector graphic) format, open and edit it as .svg in Inkscape. This stategy works well for relatively simple maps with few layers. Unfortunately, the .svg file format as implemented by the authors of QGIS and Inkscape will not preserve the layer structure of a complicated map reliably. So, for complex maps, a different strategy is needed.
2. Compose the map layout QGIS, save it as an image in the .tif file format. This .tif can then be imported as a linked (not embedded) file into an Inkscape drawing, and Inkscape tools can be used to add layers and additional data. If later work reveals a need to change the base image, it can be edited in QGIS, viewed again in QGIS Composer, and resaved as a .tif file. Inkscape will then replace the existing image with the new image when it is next reopened.

The exact steps go like this:

Create a map in QGIS.

From Composer, choose Export as Image, save the image as a TIF file.

Open Inkscape, choose the desired page size and orientation

Import the tif file created in Composer as a linked (not embedded) file

Add additional map elements as needed. (In this case, taking advantage of the powerful tools that Inkscape provides to locate labels that follow the curving path of rivers and that don't collide with boundary lines.) You may move and scale the map image if needed. Inkscape will keep track of where you put it. All of the final layout can be done in Inkscape.

Sometimes in the course of doing the final layout work in Inkscape, you’ll discover that the original map just isn’t right. It might not cover exactly the right area, or include exactly the right data. In that case, we need to go back to QGIS and modify the original map to remove the reservation boundaries. The process goes like this:

Reopen the map in QGIS, make any changes (removing the reservations in this case) and export it to the same file name.

Reopen the same composer used to create the original tif. If the image does not update automatically, select Edit|Refresh. The changes that were made in the QGIS editing window will be reflected in the image in the composer window.

In composer, export the new map image to the same file name, using the .tif file format, used for the previous map image.

Close and reopen Inkscape and open the map file. Inkscape will reopen all layers from your earlier work, but will automatically update, locate, and scale the underlying map image, using the image exported most recently from QGIS.

Finish editing in Inkscape.