Feature request #5048

Labeling's "Data defined settings" are literally used for size, etc.

Added by Aren Cambre about 12 years ago. Updated about 10 years ago.

Status:Closed
Priority:Normal
Assignee:-
Category:Labelling
Pull Request or Patch supplied:No Resolution:
Easy fix?:No Copied to github as #:14818

Description

If I specify a data-defined setting for Size for the labeling feature, it appears that the selected field is used to literally affect that property.

For example, I have a SHP that has all city limits in Texas. One field is the city's population. The field varies from very few (probably around 10) to well over a million. I cannot imagine a useful diagram that has font sizes varying from 10 points to over a million points.

Please instead allow the value to vary within a predefined scale. E.g., on the example of the city population, I'd rather the value vary between, say, 10pt and 50pt font, so that the smallest city has a 10pt font and the largest city has a 50pt font. I'm OK if QGIS has an automatic way of providing a meaningful, initial value for the bounds on size, but I'd like to be able to override these, too.

You might counterargue that I should create a separate field in my dataset to handle this value. That has two problems:
  1. I'd have to edit the SHP, which is cumbersome.
  2. Even if this was easier to edit, such as a PostGIS dataset, I'm still having to guess how everything should look before I can even see it.

I've attached images to show how things look before and after using the city population for the size field.

labeling_settings.png (39.1 KB) Aren Cambre, 2012-02-18 02:09 PM

normal_labeling.png (357 KB) Aren Cambre, 2012-02-18 02:09 PM

labeling_with_data_defined_settings.png (128 KB) Aren Cambre, 2012-02-18 02:09 PM


Related issues

Related to QGIS Application - Bug report #5049: Data-defined labeling takes 1560% longer to render Closed 2012-02-18

History

#1 Updated by Aren Cambre about 12 years ago

I should have named this ticket better since it's a feature request, not a bug.

If someone has authority to rename, new title should be Labeling's "Data defined settings" should vary within reasonable boundaries.

#2 Updated by Aren Cambre about 12 years ago

Related: #5049

#3 Updated by Giovanni Manghi almost 12 years ago

  • Target version set to Version 2.0.0

#4 Updated by Pirmin Kalberer over 11 years ago

  • Target version changed from Version 2.0.0 to Future Release - Nice to have

#5 Updated by Nyall Dawson almost 11 years ago

  • Status changed from Open to Feedback

This might be closable now -- this can be achieved by using an expression for the definition and using the new "scale_linear" function.

#6 Updated by Larry Shaffer almost 11 years ago

The branch I'm working on to provide the expression-based data defined values should be ready in the next day or so. Support for this particular feature request (label font size calculated via an expression) is already done.

#7 Updated by Larry Shaffer almost 11 years ago

  • Status changed from Feedback to Resolved

Should be fixed with commit 45f374f4

Expressions can be used to provide solution to issue.

Reopen if necessary

#8 Updated by Jürgen Fischer about 10 years ago

  • Status changed from Resolved to Closed

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