QGIS – Styling Road Maps

Question

I am trying to design a beautiful map using QGIS.
There is a similar question here Seeking QGIS tutorials and web resources? but I would like to focus on "designing a map using QGIS".

I was looking for some tools, style database or tutorials to guide me.
How to use label classes, expressions, and annotations? helped me a lot and OSM seems to look great: 1, 2. However I need to use my own shapefiles. Also there is Quantumnik. It could be a great help, however it prints map on another tab and I need it to be on the same with my QGIS project.

I am looking for a way to design a beautiful looking road map using basic QGIS tools, any resources on that?

Answer 1

In Tomtom data for example, you have an attribute called frc that can be used to classify roads. The following setup will create a GoogleMaps-style roadmap with different styles for different zoom levels.

I've worked out a solution for Google-like labeling too, this time based on OSM data: http://underdark.wordpress.com/2011/09/13/guide-to-advanced-labeling-for-osm-roads/

More related posts:

• "Advanced Layer Styles in QGIS"
• A guide to GoogleMaps-like maps with OSM in QGIS