QGIS for Archaeologists – A Basic Guide Contents

QGIS for Archaeologists – A Basic Guide
Ok, north arrows are really important for site-plans, so
let’s add one of those as well.
Select the arrow tool from the left-hand menu and add
it by clicking and dragging (tip: if you hold the shift key
while click-dragging the arrow tool, the arrow will
default to 45 or 90 degrees (across, up and down, or
diagonally across the page).
You can also add the North arrow as an image that you
have created from the library using the ‘add image
tool’ – Looks much better than a simple arrow.
To add a title to the illustration – use the add text tool
and click-drag a box in the bottom right-hand corner of
the canvas.
Figure 60: North Arrow and Title added
The text for your title can be typed into the Main Properties in the Item Properties tab. Below the
text-box, you can control the font, alignment and margin size for your title text. In this case it is Arial,
size 16 and bold.
We have just created a map, that we can now export to a file and include in a report.
In the top toolbar, there are a number of options for exporting maps. You can choose to export as an
image file, a scaled vector graphic or a pdf. I would recommend pdf, as it’s accepted and readable by
everyone, and there won’t be issues with scaling and re-sizing images further down the line. Choose
the .pdf icon, and a file-name for your new pdf.
You can also import this into vector programmes like Corel or Illustrator and work on it further.
Figure 61 - Finished
49 | P age