Are there any open source tools which can be used for map composing, preferably GUI based. I use Quantum GIS sparingly but I am interested to know if there are others. The tool must be able to read raster/vector layers in standard formats and allow exporting in various formats. Something like GeoPDF export would be a great plus.
[GIS] Open Source Map Composing Tool
guiopen-source-gistools
Best Answer
There are many, but QGIS is probably the most robust current offering. A few others:
Lastly I'd mention Inkscape, which isn't exclusively for maps, but its ability to parse PDFs and PS files means it can often be a useful post-processing tool for fine-grained control of maps generated in other software.
Most of the OS software uses GDAL/OGR for its actual data input/output, and currently there isn't any support for GeoPDF outputs unfortunately.