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I would like to create a map (of a part of the North Sea area of The Netherlands and Germany) with a few labeled markers at specific locations (lon/lat coordinates) in the North Sea. I have a current development version of QGis available; I think this will become 3.0. (I cannot use a released version; this is what I can install on my OS.) The purpose of the map is as an image in a scientific paper, to illustrate the location of some offshore structures relative to the surrounding countries. So the printed size will be 12 cm (hor) by 4 cm (vert), say.

I am a complete beginner using GIS software. I have tried to follow the tutorial at http://www.qgistutorials.com/en/docs/making_a_map.html, but the color was purple and I couldn't manage to set appropriate dimensions. I also had a look at How to create a printable map of labelled markers with OSM background?, but it didn't seem to apply to my QGis install and out-of-date in general. I furthermore tried to download some OSM data as detailed on https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/QGIS, but no data was actually downloaded because runtime error: Query ran out of memory in "bbox-query" at line 1. It would need at least 512 MB of RAM to continue..

So I am at a loss as how to continue. A task that I had assumed would be easy (‘just cut out a piece of an existing freely-licensed map, add some markers, done’) turns out to be extremely involved. It is not necessary that QGis is involved, but other GIS software is most likely not available to me. (I previously tried to use Marble for the job, but that didn't work either.)

PolyGeo
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equaeghe
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  • what was purple when you tried the qgis tutorial? maps for scientific journals are easily done in R or python which are likely to be available for you – Elio Diaz Oct 19 '17 at 14:52
  • first, you really want to be using the supported released version of QGis - 2.18 as that is what all the current documentation is for. If you have an issue installing then that is a good question to ask. Please look at our tour (https://gis.stackexchange.com/tour) to see what makes a good question. At present yours is too vague and broad to be answerable – Ian Turton Oct 19 '17 at 14:58
  • What you're describing IS a simple task, but it takes time to learn to use an advanced piece of software like QGIS. Why not just take a screenshot of an existing mapping website like openstreetmaps.org, and use an image-editing program to add the necessary annotations? – csk Oct 19 '17 at 15:28
  • @ElioDiaz: Land was colored purple instead of yellowish as in the on-line version. Pointers for Python solutions interest me very much. – equaeghe Oct 19 '17 at 18:58
  • @csk: I do want the markers+labels in the right spot, which is going to be more difficult when trying to add them to a screenshot—I think. Also, I'd like to take the opportunity of learning the basics of a GIS application. – equaeghe Oct 19 '17 at 19:02
  • @IanTurton: I know exactly what the installation issue is and know that it cannot be solved with my OS installation. I read the ‘How to Ask’: I realize that in my second paragraph, where I give an overview of my efforts, multiple issues appear. However, the main question stands clear: How do I create a map with labels using QGis? The fact that I am also interested in answers that do not use QGis should make it easier to answer. The fact that I use a development version may not even be relevant—answers for 2.18 interest me for sure—, but I mention it for completeness. Please remove the hold. – equaeghe Oct 19 '17 at 19:14
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    you can change the color and properties of layers on the layer panel, right click > properties > style – Elio Diaz Oct 19 '17 at 21:17
  • You could put latitude and longitude into openstreetmap and google maps to find the correct location for each point, then use visual cues to place that point on the screenshot. However, I don't want to discourage you from learning to use GIS. I'm just suggesting an alternate method in case you can't resolve the issue in time to meet your deadline. – csk Oct 30 '17 at 15:07

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