rbanick

# Tips

Always index the color palette, this will save space by only exporting a single color for any given pixel.

Export to PDF and *then* export as a PNG for greater file compression

Set the file compression to maximum

Open in Photoshop and resave at a lower DPI

rbanick

All learned at NACIS 2014...

# Printing 

## Printing with CMYK -- make sure it prints 100% K and no CMY (for black text)
* Because printing the C, M and Y on top of each other will be slightly slightly off. Errors and fuzziness.
* Also reduces eating ink colors
* "Separation preview" -- > "Turn off black" will show rich black vs. non-rich black
* If printing in color keep it to a minimum of channels

rbanick

# Styles Needed

After some reflection, I think we need multiple base map styles. We have a number of different audiences and one map can't possibly make all of them happy.

Our needs are such:

1. A "navigation" style that emphasizes landmarks, natural features, terrain, businesses and other features that are core to our business operations.
2. A "thematic" style that accomodates well multiple thematic layers. Should include terrain.
3. A "communications" basemap that we can use for external-facing products. 
3. A flat, terrain-less dark style that we can use to change things up.

rbanick

Basic Git resources for staff members getting started (and old timers getting lost)

https://github.com/ian29/git-tutorial
http://gitimmersion.com/
http://wildlyinaccurate.com/a-hackers-guide-to-git?utm_content=buffer48386&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

rbanick

Bash script for batch GDAL processes. This example ogr2ogr converts from .shp to .geojson.

#!/bin/bash

for FILE in *.shp # cycles through all files in directory (case-sensitive!)
do
    echo "converting file: $FILE..."
    FILENEW=`echo $FILE | sed "s/.shp/_new.geojson/"` # replaces old filename
 ogr2ogr \

rbanick

Sometimes, for whatever reason, QGIS hates your CSV of point data and mangles it so it can't be converted to points. Sometimes, it gets worse and command line GDAL also messes things up. In these cases you can fall back on a .vrt

A .vrt is a really simple file that tells GDAL *exactly* where your lat/long columns are and how to render them (e.g. as point geometry). You can also use this for non-point geometry if you want to get fancy and have columns of polygon data (or a non-csv file type that holds them in another fashion).

A .vrt is basically formatted as below: 

<OGRVRTDataSource>
    <OGRVRTLayer name="[Filename]">
        <SrcDataSource>[Filename].csv</SrcDataSource>
        <GeometryType>wkbPoint</GeometryType>

rbanick

I am on a seemingly eternal spirit quest to get Postgres working on my mac. These are some helpful links about troubleshooting some of the many, many things that can go wrong with your postgres install.

https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/issues/33406
http://blog.55minutes.com/2013/09/postgresql-93-brew-upgrade/
https://coderwall.com/p/rjioeg/fixing-postgres-homebrew-install-after-yosemite-upgrade
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16192731/issues-while-connecting-psql

rbanick

QGIS Hillshades are not hard, but they're often a little screwy. That's because units of measurement for elevation and x/y are often different. So, for instance, your DEM may be projected in WGS84 and hence have decimal degree units. But the DEM elevation units are often in meters. You need to account for this in the "scale" setting of QGIS.

The basic rule of thumb is this:

If everything is in meters, use scale factor 1.0 (default).
If x/y is in degree and z in meters, use scale factor 111120.
If x/y degree and z is feet, use scale factor 370400.

So, in QGIS 2.6, go to Raster --> Analysis --> DEM (Terrain Modules)
Load up your data, name the new file, and leave all the settings the same EXCEPT for scale. In most cases (SRTM data) you'll then rename scale to 111120.

rbanick

Someone foolishly used a file geodatabase? No problem. Get that data out at GDB Flee: https://gdbflee-mweisman.rhcloud.com/

rbanick

Formatting the SoS Charts

Background

Make sure you have installed Helvetica Neue.

Tableau