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\section{Forward}\label{label_forward}
\pagenumbering{arabic}
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Welcome to the wonderful world of Geographical Information Systems (GIS)!
Quantum GIS (QGIS) is an Open Source Geographic Information System. The project
was born in May of 2002 and was established as a project on SourceForge in June
of the same year. We've worked hard to make GIS software (which is traditionally
expensive proprietary software) a viable prospect for anyone with basic access
to a Personal Computer. QGIS currently runs on most Unix platforms, Windows, and
OS X. QGIS is developed using the Qt toolkit (\url{http://www.trolltech.com})
and C++. This means that QGIS feels snappy to use and has a pleasing, easy-to-
use graphical user interface (GUI). 

QGIS aims to be an easy-to-use GIS, providing common functions and features.
The initial goal was to provide a GIS data viewer. QGIS has reached the point
in its evolution where it is being used by many for their daily GIS data viewing
needs. QGIS supports a number of raster and vector data formats, with new
format support easily added using the plugin architecture (see Appendix
\ref{appdx_data_formats} for a full list of currently supported data formats).

QGIS is released under the GNU General Public License (GPL). Developing QGIS 
under this license means that you can inspect and modify the source code,
and guarantees that you, our happy user, will always have access to a GIS
program that is free of cost and can be freely modified. You should have
received a full copy of the license with your copy of QGIS, and you also can
find it in Appendix \ref{gpl_appendix}.  

\begin{Tip}\caption{\textsc{Up-to-date Documentation}}\index{documentation}
\qgistip{The latest version of this document can always be found at 
\url{http://download.osgeo.org/qgis/doc/manual/}, or in the documentation
area of the QGIS website at \url{http://qgis.osgeo.org/documentation/}
}
\end{Tip}

\subsection{Features}\label{label_majfeat}

QGIS offers many common GIS functionalities provided by core features and
plugins. As a short summary they are presented in six categories to gain a
first insight.

\minisec{View data}

You can view and overlay vector and raster data in different formats and
projections without conversion to an internal or common format. Supported
formats include:

\begin{itemize}
\item spatially-enabled PostgreSQL tables using PostGIS, vector formats
\footnote{OGR-supported database formats such as Oracle or mySQL are not yet
supported in QGIS.} supported by the installed OGR library, including ESRI
shapefiles, MapInfo, SDTS and GML.
\item Raster and imagery formats supported by the installed GDAL (Geospatial
Data Abstraction Library) library, such 
as GeoTiff, Erdas Img., ArcInfo Ascii Grid, JPEG, PNG,
\item GRASS raster and vector data from GRASS databases (location/mapset), 
\item Online spatial data served as OGC-compliant Web Map Service (WMS) or
Web Feature Service (WFS).
\end{itemize}

\minisec{Explore data and compose maps} 

You can compose maps and interactively explore spatial data with a friendly
GUI. The many helpful tools available in the GUI include:

\begin{itemize}
\item on the fly projection
\item map composer
\item overview panel
\item spatial bookmarks
\item identify/select features
\item edit/view/search attributes
\item feature labeling
\item change vector and raster symbology
\item add a graticule layer
\item decorate your map with a north arrow scale bar and copyright label
\item save and restore projects
\end{itemize}

\minisec{Create, edit, manage and export data}

You can create, edit, manage and export vector maps in several formats. Raster data
have to be imported into GRASS to be able to edit and export them into other
formats. QGIS offers the following: 

\begin{itemize}
\item digitizing tools for OGR supported formats and GRASS vector layer
\item create and edit shapefiles and GRASS vector layer
\item geocode images with the georeferencer plugin
\item GPS tools to import and export GPX format, and convert other GPS
formats to GPX or down/upload directly to a GPS unit
\item create PostGIS layers from shapefiles with the SPIT plugin
\item manage vector attribute tables with the table manager plugin  
\end{itemize}

\minisec{Analyse data} 

You can perform spatial data analysis on PostgreSQL/PostGIS and other OGR
supported formats using the ftools python plugin. QGIS currently offers
vector analysis, sampling, geoprocessing, geometry and database management
tools. You can also use the integrated GRASS tools, which 
include the complete GRASS functionality of more than 300 modules (See
Section \ref{sec:grass}).

\minisec{Publish maps on the internet}

QGIS can be used to export data to a mapfile and to publish them on the
internet using a webserver with UMN MapServer installed. QGIS can also
be used as a WMS or WFS client, and as WMS server. 

\minisec{Extend QGIS functionality through plugins} 

QGIS can be adapted to your special needs with the extensible
plugin architecture. QGIS provides libraries that can be used to create
plugins.  You can even create new applications with C++ or Python!

\begin{itemize}
\item \textbf{Core Plugins}
\\ \\ Add WFS Layer
\\ Add Delimited Text Layer
\\ Coordinate Capture
\\ Decorations (Copyright Label, North Arrow and Scale bar)
\\ Georeferencer
\\ Dxf2Shp Converter
\\ GPS Tools
\\ GRASS integration
\\ Graticules Creator
\\ Interpolation Plugin
\\ OGR Layer Converter
\\ Quick Print
\\ SPIT Shapefile to PostgreSQL/PostGIS Import Tool
\\ Mapserver Export
\\ Python Console
\\ Python Plugin Installer
\\ \item \textbf{Python Plugins}
\\ \\ QGIS offers a growing number of external python plugins that are 
provided by the
community. These plugins reside in the the official
PyQGIS repository, and can be easily installed using the python plugin 
installer (See Section \ref{sec:plugins}).
\end{itemize}

